The Vermont Senate on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that would regulate manufacturers selling menstrual and cosmetic products, including a list of PFAS and other chemicals linked to human health issues.
S.25 We also prohibit athletic fields and textiles (including home textiles, clothing and outdoor apparel) that contain PFAS. If voters approve it before his July 1, 2023 date, the law will not apply to stadiums that towns and cities plan to set up.
The law, now before the House of Representatives, would allow manufacturers of shampoos, makeup, deodorants, sunscreens, hair dyes, etc. It is prohibited to sell cosmetics containing and aluminum salts.
It’s based on similar laws in California, Washington and Maryland, according to Sen. Terry Williams, a Republican Rutland, who introduced the bill to lawmakers on the Senate floor on Tuesday. Many retailers such as Target, Walmart and CVS have already moved away from products containing chemicals, he said.
A growing body of evidence links the chemical group PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, to hazardous substances. human health Cancer, delayed child development, suppressed immune system, increased risk of obesity, etc.
The Federal Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed the first-ever drinking water standard for a chemical class. If the standards are finalized, Vermont will be required to adopt standards that are at least as stringent.
But removing PFASs from drinking water is no easy task, and many who are grappling with the problem say it’s best to keep the chemicals out of the waste stream in the first place. .
“The control of PFAS in consumer products is fundamental to how we need to address PFAS in general,” Matt Chapman, director of the state’s division of waste management and prevention, told lawmakers last month. rice field.
“Treatment of PFAS through the back end of wastewater treatment plants, drinking water systems, or treatment in landfills is a rather inefficient and incredibly costly way to treat PFAS,” he said. Told. “We have to go upstream. We have to deal with it at the source.”
Identifying PFAS can be difficult. Sometimes manufacturers aren’t sure if the materials they use already contain chemicals.
The bill would regulate PFASs that manufacturers “intentionally add to their products” and PFASs that “have a functional or technical impact on their products.” It also bans fibers containing amounts of total organic fluorine greater than 100 ppm, which may indicate the presence of PFAS.
Environmental advocates applauded the bill’s passage through the Senate.
“Personal care and menstrual products are applied directly to the skin and intimate areas of Vermonters every day,” Mercy Gallagher, an environmental advocate for the Vermont Public Interest Research Group, said in a press release. Textiles are the largest source of PFAS in landfills and children are exposed to turf for long periods of time.All routes of exposure are important, and S.25 states that these harmful products are entering the market. We have taken important steps to stop it.”
Williams started out by detailing a contamination in Bennington where a Teflon factory contaminated a local drinking water well with PFOA, one of more than 9,000 chemicals in the PFAS class.
The bill “is another step Vermont is taking to protect public health,” Williams said.
