As in 2023, Congress continues to focus on PFAS issues in the first months of 2024. In this 118th Congress, at least 39 bills focused on PFAS have been introduced along with several dozen additional bills that tangentially address “forever chemicals.” As we noted in an earlier post, the focus…
Abstract: This article provides overviews the status of PFAS regulation in the United States. Given the ubiquity of PFAS in commercial products, the expectation is that the United States’ regulation of PFAS and liability risks associated with PFAS will be of interest to a wide array of Japanese businesses, including…
The risks associated with PFAS-containing materials are expanding into new areas, as litigation and regulatory enforcement actions continue to rise. Recent trends suggest that employers who provide fire protection gear to their employees and contractors may find themselves facing potential liabilities. PFAS and Recent Settlements Poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)…
On October 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule in the Federal Register modifying reporting requirements for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) under Section 313 of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). (See 88 Fed. Reg. 74,360 (October…
On September 20, 2023, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) published a Federal Register Notice to request information on PFAS from “all stakeholders such as consumers, manufacturers and importers, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and researchers.” Written responses are due by November 20, 2023. In all, the notice contains 11 information…
On September 28, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the long-awaited one-time reporting rule for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that the Agency had proposed in June 2021 under Section 8(a)(7) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The finalization of this rule is one of the regulatory…
On August 17, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released preliminary results from the fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) under Section 1445(a)(2) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The UCMR provides a mechanism for the EPA to collect data regarding impacts to public water systems from “emerging…
On June 20, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed Significant New Use Rules (SNURs) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 18 chemicals derived from the recycling of plastic wastes. 88 Fed. Reg. 39804 (2023). The chemicals were the subjects of premanufacture notifications (PMNs) submitted in 2015…
In April 2023, the EPA issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) requesting input on the designation of seven PFAS as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). This NPRM followed a proposed rule released in August 2022, which would designate the two most…
Three notable settlements from June 2023 highlight the immense scale of liability for primary manufacturers of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). June 2, 2023: DuPont de Nemours Inc. (Dupont) and Dupont spinoff companies, Chemours Company and Corteva Inc., announced that they reached an agreement in principle, totaling $1.185 billion, to…