Lawmakers propose ban on 'forever chemicals' in consumer products. How it would work.

PROVIDENCE – Two years ago, Rhode Island lawmakers banned “forever chemicals” in food packaging and set limits on their concentrations in drinking water.

But advocates say that until the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, is phased out entirely, the public will be at risk of health impacts that include cancers, hormonal imbalances and reproductive issues from exposure to the chemicals that are used as a coating in cookware, carpets and outdoor gear to repel oil, water and grease.

“We are never going to get PFAS out of the environment and out of our bodies unless we get it out of the products being sold in the state,” Sen. Meghan Kallman, a Pawtucket Democrat, said at a recent General Assembly hearing. “In other words, we have to look at the source.”

Bill would phase out PFAS in certain consumer products

Kallman and Rep. Terri Cortvriend, a Middletown Democrat, have introduced legislation that would prohibit the intentional use of PFAS in certain consumer products sold in Rhode Island by 2027 and institute a full ban by 2032.

The items listed in the bill that would be subject to the regulation include artificial turf, carpets and rugs, cookware, cosmetics, fabric treatments, juvenile products, menstrual products, ski wax and textiles. Firefighting foam, which has been shown to be one of the biggest culprits in contaminating water supplies, is also on the list.

It would be up to the state Department of Environmental Management to determine which products containing the chemicals to be banned first, and the agency would be able to grant exemptions if the use of PFAS is essential and no other alternatives are available. For products in which PFAS would still be used, the types would have to be disclosed.

The first compounds in the PFAS family were invented in the 1940s and were hailed for their water resistance and ability to dissipate heat. They would eventually be used in everything from frying pans to microwave popcorn bags to protective gear for firefighters, but scientists in recent decades have found that the manufacture and use of PFAS has tainted water supplies and threatened public health.

The chemicals get their forever name from their persistence in the environment, posing a particular threat to drinking water because concentrations can build over time.

While the federal government has been slow to regulate the chemicals – only recently proposing a nationwide drinking water standard – states have stepped in to adopt their own rules, most commonly by setting limits, as Rhode Island has done, for drinking water.

But more recent efforts have taken aim at the use of PFAS in consumer products to try to stop contamination from happening in the first place. Maine enacted a law in 2021 that phases out the use of PFAS over a decade. Minnesota passed a similar law last year. Other states have focused on specific consumer products, similar to what’s now being proposed in Rhode Island.

Environmental and health groups support legislation while industry has concerns

Still, in written testimony and in hearings before the Senate environment committee on Wednesday and its House counterpart on Thursday, industry groups raised concerns that the legislation is too broad.

Andrew Bemus, of the Sustainable PFAS Action Network, a group representing users and producers of PFAS, said that language in the bill that would regulate the chemicals as an entire class, a definition that could include more than 14,000 compounds, would make enforcement difficult. He recommended a more tailored approach to focus on the types most common in consumer products.

But while the bill doesn’t target specific chemicals, it is aimed at particular products, said Jed Thorp, Rhode Island director of Clean Water Action.

The DEM supports the intent of the bill, with director Terrence Gray saying there’s “an urgent need to address the prevalence of PFAS” in commonly-used products, but he also questioned the staffing requirements it would entail.

“Enforcing the prohibitions and disclosure requirements the bill introduces would be a resource-intensive process that we do not believe we could implement effectively with existing resources,” he said in written testimony.

The Narragansett Bay Commission, which operates the largest wastewater treatment system in the state, supports the legislation, saying that no sewage treatment technology can remove PFAS from household and industrial waste.

Along with Clean Water Action, other environmental groups are also strong supporters of the bill. They include the Conservation Law Foundation and Save The Bay. The Rhode Island Medical Society is also supportive, as is Rainer Lohmann, director of a research center on PFAS headquartered at the University of Rhode Island.

“Virtually every American has PFAS in their blood, absorbing it through the water they drink, their clothes and their nonstick pans,” Cortvriend said in a statement. “We know that alternatives to PFAS exist, and the goal of this bill is to require manufacturers to adopt those safer alternatives in their manufacturing processes.”

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: PFAS ban in cookware, rugs, cosmetics, other products proposed for RI