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This week, the state gave a six-month extension to an extensive list of more than 1,000 companies on the PFAS in products reporting deadline. Last year, a Maine law was passed requiring all companies to report whether or not their products contain PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ starting Jan. 1, 2023, but the Maine DEP has chosen to ignore Maine farms, environmental groups, tribal representatives and health experts and follow the request of the manufacturers to give some of them the extensions.

In response, Defend Our Health’s Director of Advocacy, Sarah Woodbury said: 

“We at Defend Our Health are incredibly disappointed in this decision by the Maine DEP. Maine has been considered a national leader in the fight against PFAS, and the nearly unanimous decision by the Legislature in 2021 to pass LD 1503 was core to fighting to protect Maine families from PFAS exposure. We shouldn’t be taking steps back; we need to keep moving forward and holding manufacturers accountable. They’ve known about the requirements for 15 months. Many of these manufacturers asking for extensions testified against this law. It’s readily apparent that they are hoping to be able to avoid this process altogether.

This law is critical to protecting the health and environment of all Mainers. We aren’t able to prevent further PFAS pollution until we know which products contain them. Mainers are now generally aware of the PFAS crisis happening in our state, and families are living in fear about the impacts that exposure to these toxic chemicals may have on their families. The DEP needs to be focused on protecting the people of Maine, not the manufacturers. We all know the health impacts and risks associated with PFAS; kidney cancer, decreased infant and fetal growth, decreased immunity. We aren’t just extending the amount of time manufacturers have to report, we’re extending the amount of time that consumers are potentially exposed to these highly toxic chemicals. 

Maine has successfully required reporting in the past for mercury, phthalates and other toxic chemicals in products, so we know that the state is capable of making this happen again. The Interstate Chemicals Clearinghouse already maintains a searchable database with thousands of records from reporting of toxic chemicals in children’s products in Oregon and Washington states and this is where Maine’s data will be reported and stored for Mainers to research and protect themselves accordingly.

It’s been over three years since Maine has passed a law to ban PFAS in food packaging and that law has yet to be implemented. Now we are at least 4 months behind on rulemaking for the PFAS in products law. Yet, the agency managed to verify the authenticity and merits of each of more than 1,000 industry claims for a delay in PFAS reporting in the limited time they had available. Deputy Commissioner David Madore told BDN that prior to the list going public, some companies had been granted extensions and others had been denied on reasonable grounds but the information on why those extensions have been granted has not been made public. The DEP needs to be more transparent in this process and justify why these extensions have been granted. What is even more troubling is the reporting in the Bangor Daily News today that the DEP has granted blanket extensions to companies with little justification. It’s also incredibly troubling that some of the companies that have been granted extensions didn’t even ask for one. This is not the legislative intent of the law. DEP has mishandled the implementation of this law and we have grave concerns about the process going forward.”