Massachusetts is just not “in the vanguard” on the subject of addressing poisonous “forever chemicals,” in line with the Senate sponsor of a invoice meant to assist municipalities and water techniques clear up associated contamination.
It’s the second time Home Speaker Professional Tempore Kate Hogan and Senate Assistant Majority Whip Julian Cyr have filed laws that will part out using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a category of chemical compounds that don’t break down totally within the setting and are linked to dangerous well being points like thyroid illness, liver injury, some cancers and immune system suppression.
The payments gained favorable studies final session from the Joint Committee on Public Health and Health Care Financing, however died in Home Methods and Means Committee final session.
Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention knowledge present that greater than 99% of individuals within the U.S. have detectable ranges of PFAS of their blood, in line with Laurel Schaider, a senior scientist at Newton-based Silent Spring Institute who spoke at a State Home briefing on Thursday.
PFAS are sometimes utilized in nonstick, stain-resistant, waterproof and grease-resistant merchandise. Nicely house owners and customers, farmers and firefighters from throughout Massachusetts have testified earlier than the Legislature in recent times and gathered on the State Home Thursday to debate the sicknesses and different points which have resulted from water and soil contaminated with PFAS and firefighting gear designed with PFAS in it.
“I think there’s two hurdles here. One is that we’re talking about complex policy related to environmental science, and the more that we learn about PFAS, the more we understand its ubiquity,” Cyr advised the Information Service. “As you build a statutory and then a regulatory scheme around it, this isn’t easy policymaking.”
A bunch of widespread objects with and with out per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in them, displayed on the State Home briefing.
The Legislature in 2024 handed just a few measures, in line with Hogan, together with these phasing out PFAS in firefighter protecting gear and rising funds to MassDEP to supply assist for PFAS testing.
Different lawmakers have filed various varieties of laws this session aiming to handle totally different PFAS-related points. A delegation of Massachusetts lawmakers visited Maine in August in an try to raised perceive how the state tackled contamination attributable to PFAS particularly associated to sewage sludge on farms.
“Massachusetts, we like to be in the vanguard of public health, of environmental health and safety. We are no longer in the vanguard. I think there are 13 or 14 other states that have passed some form of legislation related to PFAS. So we’re losing ground a bit,” Cyr stated.
Alaska, New Jersey and New Hampshire additionally lately handed legal guidelines particularly addressing PFAS utilized in firefighting gear. States together with California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont have handed various legal guidelines phasing out using PFAS.
