PFAS | Must Read a strategic roadmap to take specific actions and commit to new policies to protect public health and the environment, and to hold polluters accountable. In September it proposed designating two PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, as hazardous due to “significant evidence” that they present “substantial danger to human health or welfare or the environment.” Another federal agency examining the impact of PFAS on public health is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has several ongoing reviews of PFAS in food and food containers. “There is no current federal regulation on PFAS in any consumer product,” says Brenner. “It’s not like Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, where there’s a specific threshold that you can’t have more than so much lead and lead in the substrate of any product, or so much lead in the surface coating. There’s nothing like that for PFAS at the federal level yet.” In fact, he adds, if we go back to the way that lead was regulated in the U.S., it’s a very similar situation to what’s going on now with PFAS. “In the summer of 2007, there were millions and millions of Barbie dolls and other Chinese toys that were recalled. It is referred to as the ‘summer of recalls.’ As a result, a number of states started passing lead regulations – and none of them were harmonized with another, and it became very challenging,” Brenner says. “What can we do when there are different regulations in different states, and they have different definitions of what’s covered and what’s not covered?” In August 2008, the CPSIA was signed into law. One of its provisions was that all state consumer product safety regulations that had been passed subsequent to 1986 were preempted. With the federal laws in place, companies didn’t have to worry about what state they were dealing with. Brenner says, “It was a benefit to all of us in the industry because all of a sudden we had a standard that applied everywhere. We’ve got the same situation now, and that’s the issue. You have all of these states passing legislation right now about PFAS, and they’re not harmonized.” Consumer Goods Domestic Sources Agriculture Groundwater River or Stream PPAI • APRIL 2023 • 47
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