Health scientists applaud the scrapping of controversial Indiana PFAS bill

By Brian Bienkowski | Environmental Health News | February 27, 2024

Read the full article by Brian Bienkowski (Environmental Health News)

“Indiana senators abandoned a bill on Monday that would have excluded thousands of the most widely used PFAS chemicals from the state’s definition of the chemical class.

House Bill 1399 was designed to exempt some per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and protect them from inclusion in possible future state or federal bans. Proponents of the bill pointed to ‘necessary’ uses of the chemicals in batteries, computers, pacemakers and other devices. Leading health scientists, however, said the bill was not grounded in science, issued a statement outlining the bill’s errors and testified in committee hearings against it.

‘This public health victory shows what happens when scientists contribute their expertise to the policymaking process,’ Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University who testified in the hearings, said in a statement. ‘The whittled-down definition of PFAS proposed was not only scientifically inaccurate, but it would have set a harmful precedent that other states and governments could adopt.’

The bill comes as most states are looking to ramp down PFAS use. A recent analysis by Safer States estimates 35 states will introduce policies this year to ban PFAS chemicals from some uses. PFAS, dubbed ‘forever chemicals’ due to their persistence in the environment, are used in a variety of products like cookware, packaging, clothing and cosmetics"

This content provided by the PFAS Project.