State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, and state Rep. Kate Hogan, D-Stow, announced in a press release they filed “a comprehensive bill targeting per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the commonwealth” in the state legislature.
According to the release, the bill, “An Act to protect Massachusetts public health from PFAS,” or simply the Mass PFAS Act, “advances many recommendations from the state legislature’s PFAS Interagency Task Force,” led by Cyr and Hogan. “The Mass PFAS Act marks a critical step in our rigorous and overarching effort to mitigate contamination of and eliminate exposure to forever chemicals,” Cyr said in the release.
The Mass PFAS Act builds upon current efforts to identify, clean up, and prevent PFAS contamination in the commonwealth, according to the release. These include establishing “a PFAS Remediation Trust Fund to assist impacted communities, water systems, and individuals with the cost of addressing PFAS contamination, expands outreach efforts to environmental justice communities and the general public, updates private well recommendations, and directs [Department of Public Health] to collect data on occupational exposure to PFAS.” The release also said that the bill directs the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to “establish effluent limitations for PFAS in wastewater, and limits the use of Class B firefighting foam.” Class B firefighting foam is also called aqueous film forming foam, or AFFF.
“With this legislation, Massachusetts is taking an upstream approach to addressing a serious public health and environmental threat. The ubiquity of PFAS in our everyday lives calls for an aggressive strategy that cleans up existing contamination and stops PFAS at the source to end the cycle of contamination in our bodies and environment,” Hogan said in the release.
PFAS describes a “class of chemicals known for their environmental persistence [that] are used in a wide range of industrial applications and consumer products,” the release says. PFAS chemicals break down very slowly, and have earned the nickname “forever chemicals.” This persistence means “water supplies, consumer products, air, and other exposure pathways” have been contaminated by PFAS. The release states that in Massachusetts, the DEP and the Department of Public Health “detected PFAS in public drinking water systems, private wells, rivers, and fish.” According to the release, the bill defines PFAS as a “class” for the purpose of “eliminating PFAS from food packaging, consumer products, and firefighting personal protective equipment.”
“Defining PFAS as a class for the regulation of food packaging and consumer products is a vital component of this strategy, because it limits the ability of manufacturers to substitute one toxic chemical for another toxic chemical. The Mass PFAS Act takes a thoughtful, evidence-based approach to making the commonwealth safer for all of our residents,” Hogan said in the release.
On Martha’s Vineyard, the most recent PFAS findings came from West Tisbury Fire Station One. PFAS contamination was found in several private wells near the fire station, which was detected by tests done by MassDEP and the University of Massachusetts.
The Centers for Disease Control Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate most U.S. residents have PFAS in their bloodstream, which the release states “can lead to significant health risks.”
The Mass PFAS Act is a result of the PFAS Interagency Task Force’s work, with recommended legislation and regulatory action to address PFAS listed in the task force’s report, titled “PFAS in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.” The task force was appointed in 2020 by the state legislature to investigate PFAS contamination in the water and ground.
“The work of the PFAS Interagency Task Force, and its unanimously supported report, directly guided the formation of the Mass PFAS Act,” Cyr said in the release, “This omnibus legislation covers a lot of ground; it prohibits the use of unsafe firefighting foam, prohibits the sale of products with intentionally added PFAS, directs the state to update private well guidelines, and more. As we embark on a new session, the Mass PFAS Act starts us off on the right foot to put measures in place to protect our public health and environment.”
The bill awaits a committee assignment to begin the legislative hearing process.