Search Results for: "california" and "pfas"

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California / PFAS
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California Bill Expands Definition of ‘Intentionally Added PFAS’

Our blog has reported previously on California PFAS regulations, including its watershed laws with novel definitions of PFAS and the noted problems with the total organic fluorine testing method. (Prior CA blog posts on PFAS).

We have also written on California’s PFAS ban in many children’s products and in disposable food packaging (here), California’s requirements on carpet and rug manufacturers to consider alternatives to PFAS, and bans (except under specified circumstances) on any cosmetic product that contains any of several specified …

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California / PFAS
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California Signs New PFAS Laws Regulating Children’s Products and Food Packaging

On October 5, 2021, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two laws further restricting the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Often referred to as “forever chemicals,” California will now ban such compounds in many children’s products and in disposable food packaging.

One of California’s new PFAS laws (AB 652) will bar the use of PFAS in the manufacture of children’s products, including car seats, pillows, bassinets, changing pads, playmats, bouncers, walkers, strollers, and cribs. On and after July 1, 2023, this law prohibits a …

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Supermarket aisle with merchandise and no people
PFAS
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CA Federal District Court Grants Dismissal to Manufacturer in PFAS Complaint

On January 12, 2024, a northern California federal district court dismissed the PFAS-related class-action case of Lowe v. Edgewell Personal Care Company on the grounds that its plaintiffs had not plausibly alleged injury from the products at issue.

The Lowe plaintiffs brought their actions against two different tampon product lines, claiming that the presence of “per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) rendered the manufacturer’s various representations about the products false and misleading.” The plaintiffs alleged that “independent third-party testing” confirmed the presence of PFAS in the tampons …

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Close-up side shot of hands shows microplastic waste contaminated with the seaside sand. Microplastics are contaminated in the sea. Concept of water pollution and global warming.
Microplastics
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Microplastics: Nurdle Law and Regulation Update

By Joshua Fine, Manager, Environmental Claims, Crum & Forster and George Buermann, Partner, Goldberg Segalla LLP

Seventy-nine percent of plastic waste ends up in landfills or the environment, much of which eventually ends up in our oceans. A March 8, 2023 study, estimated the average amount of small plastics in the ocean surface layer using available data on floating ocean plastics from 1979 through 2019 at 171 trillion plastic particles, mostly microplastics, weighing at about 2.5 million tons. Nurdles are “microplastic resin pellets” generally under …

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Filling glass of water from the tap
PFAS
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U.S. Geological Survey Study Warns 45 Percent of Tap Water in United States Could Contain PFAS

Motivated by “the quality and sustainability of drinking-water” due to rising water demand concerns in the United States, as well as “increasing contamination of drinking-water resources, and a growing understanding of potential human-health consequences associated with exposures to contaminants,” the U.S. Geological Survey recently conducted a study on the prevalence of PFAS in tap water.  

To better understand human exposure to PFAS at the point-of-use, the authors conducted a standardized analytical survey of PFAS nationally.

“The overall objectives of the study were to (1) directly …

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Man showing compost
Regulations
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PFAS ALERT: The Arrival of Increased Regulation in Composting

By Joshua Fine, Manager, Environmental Claims, Crum & Forster and George Buermann, Partner, Goldberg Segalla LLP

Composting has long been viewed as an important tool for sustainability with benefits for the environment as it has reduced the amount of waste incinerated or sent to landfills. Since the 1920s, municipal biosolids, or treated sewage sludge, has been used in agriculture in the United States. Only since 1993, however, has the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided standards for the use or disposal of biosolids, or treated sewage sludge, through …

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Office of the Attorney General
California / PFAS
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PFAS ALERT: What Happens in California Won’t Likely Stay in California

In what has been earmarked as the largest government enforcement PFAS action to date, California’s attorney general last month filed an historic lawsuit against more than a dozen per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) manufacturers – as well as “John Doe” PFAS manufacturers – seeking equitable and financial relief for purported statewide pollution to the environment and harm its residents.

While there are thousands of PFAS compounds subject to scrutiny, the California AG’s lawsuit seeks damages related to only seven of the more commonly known compounds:  PFOA, …

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California / PFAS
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There’s PFAS in my burger, my fries, my lipstick, and my underwear? How PFAS Litigation has become a game of Whack-A-Mole.

The world’s most recognizable food chains are under heightened scrutiny these days, not for the nutritional value of their products, but for their iconic food packaging. Just last month, a class action complaint filed in federal court in Illinois alleged a popular chain concealed from consumers the presence of PFAS in its food products.  Weeks later, a separate plaintiff sued yet another beloved fast food chain in federal court in California challenging the claim that it uses sustainable packaging and real ingredients. While the kings …

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PFAS
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PFAS Companies Take Heat From Congress

Last week, the House Environmental Oversight Committee held a third and final hearing on PFAS issues in the United States. The September 10 2019, hearing, which focused on PFAS contamination by industrial producers, served as a follow-up to the subcommittee’s July 24, 2019 hearing on the human impact of PFAS contamination and state-level efforts to regulate the chemicals. DuPont, its spinoff company Chemours, and 3M all sent representatives to Washington D.C. to attend.

In anticipation of the hearing, DuPont issued a press release defining their …

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Michigan / New Jersey / Wastewater
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PFAS Contamination Map Underscores Widespread Pollution

In conjunction with the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute of Northeastern University, the non-profit watchdog organization Environmental Working Group (EWG) published last week an updated version of their interactive map documenting alleged sites of PFAS contamination in the United States. It purports to chart 610 locations in 43 states that have reported known contamination with PFAS chemicals, potentially affecting the drinking water of approximately 19 million people. A prior version of the map issued in July 2018 documented only 172 contaminated sites in 40 …

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