States Are Banning Forever Chemicals. Industry Is Fighting Back

In 2021, James Kenney and his hubby were astatine a large container store buying a portion of furnishings erstwhile the income subordinate asked if they’d similar to adhd cloth protectant. Kenney, the furniture caput of New Mexico’s Environment Department, asked to spot the merchandise information sheet. Both helium and his husband, a chemic engineer, were shocked to spot everlastingly chemicals listed arsenic ingredients successful the protectant.

“I deliberation astir your normal, mundane New Mexican who is trying to get by, marque their furnishings past a small longer, and they think, ‘Oh, it’s safe, great!’ It’s not safe,” helium says. “It conscionable truthful happens that they tried to merchantability it to the situation secretary.”

Last week, the New Mexico legislature passed a brace of bills that Kenney hopes volition assistance support consumers successful his state. If signed by the governor, the authorities would yet prohibition user products that person added PFAS—per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, known colloquially arsenic “forever chemicals” due to the fact that of their persistence successful the environment—from being sold successful New Mexico.

As wellness and biology concerns astir everlastingly chemicals equine nationally, New Mexico joins a tiny but increasing fig of states that are moving to limit—and, successful immoderate cases, ban—PFAS successful user products. New Mexico is present the 3rd authorities to walk a PFAS prohibition done the legislature. Ten different states person bans oregon limits connected added PFAS successful definite user products, including cookware, carpet, apparel, and cosmetics. This year, astatine slightest 29 states—a grounds number—have PFAS-related bills earlier authorities legislatures, according to an investigation of bills by Safer States, a web of state-based advocacy organizations moving connected issues astir perchance unsafe chemicals.

The chemic and user products industries person taken announcement of this caller question of regulations and are mounting a counterattack, lobbying authorities legislatures to advocator for the information of their products—and, successful 1 case, suing to forestall the laws from taking effect. Some of the cardinal exemptions made successful New Mexico item immoderate of the large fights that industries are hoping they’ll triumph successful statehouses crossed the country: fights they are already taking to a recently industry-friendly US Environmental Protection Agency.

PFAS is not conscionable 1 chemic but a people of thousands. The archetypal PFAS were developed successful the 1930s; acknowledgment to their nonstick properties and unsocial durability, their popularity grew successful concern and user uses successful the postwar era. The chemicals were soon omnipresent successful American lives, coating cookware, preventing furnishings and carpets from staining, and acting arsenic a surfactant successful firefighting foam.

In 1999, a antheral successful West Virginia filed a suit against US chemic elephantine DuPont alleging that contamination from its mill was sidesplitting his cattle. The suit revealed that DuPont had concealed grounds of PFAS’s antagonistic wellness effects connected workers from the authorities for decades. In the years since, the chemic manufacture has paid retired billions successful colony fees astir PFAS lawsuits: successful 2024, the American multinational 3M agreed to wage betwixt $10 cardinal and $12.5 cardinal to US nationalist h2o systems that had detected PFAS successful their h2o supplies to wage for remediation and aboriginal testing, though the institution did not admit liability. (DuPont and its abstracted chemic institution Chemours proceed to contradict immoderate wrongdoing successful lawsuits involving them, including the archetypal West Virginia suit.)