The Environmental Protection Agency has quietly backtracked on a claim that the US has phased out two of the most dangerous Pfas compounds – Pfoa and Pfos. The has found that virtually no level of exposure to either in drinking water is safe, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies Pfoa as “carcinogenic to humans” and Pfos as “possibly carcinogenic”. Still, the is allowing Houston-based Inhance to produce containers from which Pfoa has been found to leach at high levels into the containers’ contents.
The company makes up to 200m plastic containers annually used across the US economy. The containers present an “ongoing serious and ongoing threat to public health,” said Kyla Bennett, a former scientist who is now science policy director with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) non-profit. Inhance has denied that the chemical leaches out in measurable levels, and told The Guardian in a statement that any Pfoa from its products are an “impurity” The “phase-out” was put in place after documents made public during landmark early 2000s litigation on DuPont’s Pfas pollution in West Virginia laid bare the ubiquitous chemicals’ dangers and serious health risks.
In 2015, facing intense pressure to act, the reached an agreement with eight Pfas producers to “phase out” production of Pfoa and Pfos, a similar chemical produced by 3M. Though the agency stopped short of a ban, the “phase out” was viewed as major progress on reining in Pfas pollution. Officials often repeated the claim that the chemicals had been phased out, giving the impression that they were no longer produced or used in the US.
Last month, the quietly changed wording on its website that claimed Pfoa and Pfos had been phased out.. In fact, both have been produced in the US this whole time, and at levels that independent science suggest are quite high. The site previously stated: “The manufacture and import of Pfoa has also been phased out in the United States.” It now reads: “Quantities of Pfoa may be produced, imported, and used by companies … ” The change was made in response to a complaint filed by Peer, which pointed out that the was allowing Pfoa to be produced in the US.
Under the Information Quality Act, data and information made public by federal agencies be complete and accurate. The panel’s findings were the scientific basis for the phase-out. The did not immediately provide a comment to the Guardian.
Inhance in its statement to The Guardian stressed that there was never a ban in place and it was not one of the eight companies that agreed to stop producing Pfoa. The reversal underscores why phase-outs are inadequate, and the needs to put in place bans, Bennett said. The seemed unaware that Pfas were being added to plastic containers until late 2020 testing by Peer found high levels of Pfas in pesticides stored in Inhance bins.
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