Maine
Maine is giving some companies more time to say if PFAS are in their products
The state is granting six-month extensions to some corporations to present them extra time to report whether or not poisonous chemical compounds are of their merchandise.
A Maine regulation directed all corporations to report whether or not their merchandise include PFAS, or per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, beginning Jan. 1. Nonetheless, after a number of producers requested the state this month to delay the requirement, the Maine Division of Environmental Safety has granted a few of them six-month extensions, Deputy Commissioner David Madore mentioned.
Beneath LD 1503, which handed the Maine Legislature in 2021, a producer of a product on the market in Maine that comprises deliberately added PFAS is required to inform the state of why PFAS are within the product and the quantity of the chemical compounds in it.
Corporations have been conscious of the necessities for 15 months and will have been getting ready for testing, mentioned Sarah Woodbury, the director of advocacy for Portland-based Defend Our Well being.
“They need to have been gathering this data for the reason that regulation was handed,” mentioned Woodbury, who helped draft the laws. “Saying the division isn’t giving them sufficient time is slightly disingenuous, contemplating many producers testified towards this invoice.”
Lengthy-term publicity to PFAS can improve the chance of kidney most cancers, lower toddler and fetal progress, and reduce immunity, based on the Nationwide Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medication. There’s additionally proof linking PFAS to breast most cancers, testicular most cancers and thyroid illness, amongst different sicknesses.
Corporations have been pushing for much more time to report what’s of their merchandise.
Dozens of producers just lately requested the state to delay the requirement till 2024, a transfer that prompted sturdy opposition from farmers, environmental teams, tribes, wastewater remedy districts and others in a letter to the state with 53 signatures.
There’s restricted capability to check for PFAS nationwide. For strong merchandise, these checks can take as much as three months, and the division is keen to accommodate producers who require extra time to finish the required testing of their merchandise, Madore mentioned.
Some corporations have even been asking for 12 months or longer to delay reporting the knowledge, he mentioned.
“However the Division believes 180 days needs to be sufficient for a producer to determine every of their merchandise and elements that should be examined, discover an accessible lab, safe financing for analytical prices, acquire and submit samples, await outcomes, and full submission of all required data into the web datasystem,” he wrote in an e mail.
The regulation offers the division the pliability to increase the deadline if it determines producers want extra time.
The state has already granted extensions to some corporations and denied others on cheap grounds, Madore mentioned, however the division isn’t but capable of disclose what number of corporations have utilized or who they’re.
“The Division isn’t soliciting extension requests,” he mentioned. It “is responding to inquiries and requests.”
If testing turnaround time is as much as three months, “then six months needs to be loads of time,” Woodbury mentioned.
The division will maintain a stakeholder assembly to evaluation the necessities of the regulation on Thursday.
A listing of extensions granted to corporations is scheduled to be made public by the tip of the week, Madore mentioned.
Mehr Sher is a Report for America corps member. Further assist for this reporting is supplied by the Unity Basis and donations by BDN readers.