Category: PFAS

Scientist with beaker
PFAS
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National Science and Technology Council’s PFAS R&D Strategy Plan Highlights Substantial Deficiencies

Recently, as part of the Joint Subcommittee on Environment, Innovation, and Public Health, the PFAS Strategy Team of the National Science and Technology Council released a report titled the “Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Federal Research and Development Strategic Plan.”

The National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) is the principal means by which the executive branch coordinates science and technology policy across the diverse entities that make up the federal research and development (R&D) enterprise. Through the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for …

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Big net thrown in the ocean capturing lots of fish
PFAS
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Common Summertime Eats – Fish and Shellfish: EPA Adds Various PFAS Compounds to Monitoring/Advisory Programs

On July 11, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued updated recommendations under the Clean Water Act for contaminants that states, Tribes, and territories should consider monitoring in locally caught, freshwater fish. For the first time, the EPA has added several per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) to the contaminant list (e.g., PFDA, PFHxS, PFNA, PFOA, PFOS), in addition to lead, three cyanotoxins, a flame retardant, and amphetamine.

States, Tribes, and territories monitor and analyze contaminants in fish and shellfish caught in local, fresh waterbodies. When they …

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EPA Offices, Washington DC
EPA / PFAS
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EPA Releases Updated Guidance on Destroying and Disposing PFAS

In furtherance of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap, which our firm has written about frequently, the EPA released an updated guide on destroying and disposing of PFAS.

According to EPA, the updated guidance (found here) reflects the “latest, best available science” to provide information that managers of PFAS wastes can use to evaluate the most appropriate destruction, disposal, or storage method. EPA instructs that the primary audience of this guidance are decision makers who need to identify the most effective …

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EPA Offices, Washington DC
EPA / PFAS
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Fifth Circuit Tells EPA 40-Year-Old Fluorination Process isn’t ‘New’

Inhance Technologies is a company that has been fluorinating plastic containers using the same process since 1983. The fluorination process creates a barrier that keeps dangerous substances from leaching out of their containers, and keeps outside substances from permeating in. The U.S. EPA began investigating Inhance after the presence of perfluoroalkyls (PFAS) was detected in an insecticide that was stored in a container fluorinated by Inhance.

After confirming that Inhance’s fluorination process resulted in the creation of PFAS, the EPA issued Inhance a Notice of Violation …

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Indiana Waving Flag
PFAS
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Will Industry Push Back Proactively on Potential PFAS-Use Restrictions?

Over the past seven years, our blog has reported extensively on PFAS developments, litigation, and regulations — most of which has focused on the attention surrounding potential risks associated with PFAS, and the scrutiny given to that chemical class by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Today we are providing a wrinkle seldom seen recently in the PFAS world: a proposed law that would protect PFAS uses.  

This week, state of Indiana senators chose to abandon a bill that reportedly would have excluded thousands of the …

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Close up of conveyor belt in bottling plant
PFAS / Regulations
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Regulatory States: Further Limitations on PFAS-Containing Products Now in Effect

Right out of the gate in 2024, we’ve seen several states further regulate the sale of PFAS-containing products. On Jan. 1, a Connecticut statute took effect prohibiting the sale or promotion of any “food package to which PFAS has been intentionally introduced during manufacturing or distribution in any amount.” The law defines “food packaging” to mean “any package or packaging component that is applied to, or in direct contact with any food or beverage.”

Connecticut defines “intentionally introduced” to mean any “deliberately utiliz[ing] regulated metal …

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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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The toxic symbol on chemical products, dangerous chemicals in industry
EPA / PFAS
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EPA Adds Seven More PFAS To Toxic Release Inventory List

As our blog has reported a number of times, the Environmental Protection Agency announced an ambitious national strategy to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Dubbed a “roadmap,” the EPA says that it is centered on three guiding strategies focused on research, restrictions, and remediation. Specifically: “Increase investments in research, leverage authorities to take action now to restrict PFAS chemicals from being released into the environment and accelerate the cleanup of PFAS contamination.”

As part of this plan, the EPA last week announced the …

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Firefighting foam.
Litigation / PFAS
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Doomed from the Start: Sixth Circuit Extinguishes Hardwick Class-Action PFAS Litigation

“Seldom is so ambitious a case filed on so slight a basis.”

That was the first sentence of Judge RaymondKethledge’s opinion vacating a district court order that certified a class of over 11 million Ohio residents who alleged various companies put their health at risk by manufacturing and selling products containing PFAS.  The panel of three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit— Kethledge, Thapar, and Mathis — instructed the district court to dismiss this much-talked-about case for lack of jurisdiction. …

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Chemical hazard pictograms Toxic focus
CERCLA / EPA / PFAS
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CERCLA’n the Wagons: Even as it Seeks to Expand PFAS Regulations, EPA Will Not Enforce Rules Against Certain Groups

Since early 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency has pursued authority to establish a rule designating PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation & Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as the Superfund Act. 

On August 12, 2022, the CERCLA PFAS designation effort advanced significantly when the Office of Management and Budget approved the EPA’s plan to designate PFOA and PFOS — perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluoroctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) — as hazards. This opened the door for the EPA …

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