Democratic State legislators held a hearing last week on “forever chemicals” causing serious physical harm to Bucks County residents and the policies needed to protect people from further consuming toxic chemicals.
State Senators Katie Muth and Maria Collett joined State Representatives Greg Scott and Brian Munroe for a joint policy committee hearing on legislation to ban the intentional use of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) like House Bill 2238.
According to the House Bill 2238 memorandum , PFAS are a group of over 7,800 human-made chemicals that do not break down in the environment and cause serious health issues in humans. PFAS are used in consumer products and industrial processes for their ability resist heat, grease, and water.
Representative Scott is sponsoring House Bill 2238 which would introduce legislation that bans the use of PFAS in menstrual products, cleaning ingredients, cookware, and dental floss in Pennsylvania.
“These risks demand our immediate attention and action. We are committed, those of us up at this table and as well as some of our colleagues in our caucuses, to creating and examining legislation that seeks to ban the intentional use of PFAS in industrial applications while making necessary exceptions for essential uses as defined by the department of health and the department of environmental protection,” Scott said.
Representative Munroe joined the hearing to represent Warminster Township.
“Welcome to Warminster, it’s home to the creation of the steamboat engine, it’s the beginnings of America’s space program right here, and the most contaminated community of ‘forever chemicals’ in the country,” Munroe said.
Munroe said much of Warminster’s contamination comes from the deicing chemicals used at the Naval Air Warfare Center for decades. The center operated from the 1949 to the 1990s when all operations were transferred to other facilities.
The area is now home to a number of communal uses including a housing development, Warminster Community Park, and Ann’s Choice, a senior citizens’s housing complex. The Warminster Municipal Authority alerted the public to groundwater contamination in the area in 2014.
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The contaminated wells were shut down, and Munroe says the community has its water shipped in from North Wales. Despite these safety measures, the community is experiencing the harmful effects of the contamination.
“I talk to a lot of people in this community, there’s not a day goes by where people are saying to me, ‘Listen, I think there’s a cancer cluster in my neighborhood,’” Munroe said.
Thomas Zoeller, Ph.D. Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, testified virtually answering questions about the effects of PFAS on the body, how people are exposed, and possible solutions.
Residents can be exposed by drinking from the municipality water or contaminated private well water. Zoeller said people can also be exposed through contaminated food and food packaging made with PFAS.
“So, between food and water and also air, depending on where you live, and consumer products, you know, the concept that you almost can’t buy furniture that doesn’t have PFAS is a big problem,” Zoeller said.
Five other panelists testified to the number of issues with PFAs and possible policy solutions including Stephanie Wein, a water and conservation advocate for PennEnvironment. Wein spoke more about the harms of PFAs in consumer products.
“These chemicals are often even included in many pans labeled as non-toxic, which is a marketing phrase that isn’t regulated, so it provides no guarantee to the consumer that what they’re buying is PFAS-free,” Wein said.
Wein also warned that products labeled PFAS-free are misleading and listed the extensive number of consumer products that may contain PFAS. These products included makeup, furniture, clothes, menstrual products, diapers and microwave popcorn.
“The protections offered by House Bill 2238 are long overdue,” Wein said. “We shouldn’t have to wonder if PFAS are in these products we’re bringing into our homes that we cook food with, that we use to care for our children.”
Firefighters are exposed directly to PFAS which are used in firefighting foams and in their uniforms for heat resistance. Munroe had first hand exposure to PFAs as a firefighter and is concerned that his two prior cancer diagnoses were a result of his exposure to these chemicals.
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“I do think there’s sufficient evidence to make the case that PFAs increase the risk of cancer, period,” Zoeller said.
Ian Louda is the Southeast PA Legislative Coordinator for Clean Water Action and spoke about the effects of PFAS on firefighters and the efforts to remove the chemicals from gear and firefighting foam.
Louda advocated for House Bill 1541 and House bill 1571, which would phase in PFAS-free gear and require a warning label on gear made with PFAS in the meantime.
“Everyday our firefighters put their lives on the line to protect us and our communities,” Louda said. “We should be honoring that service by doing everything in our control to protect them.”
A couple of testifiers explained how manufacturers are still able to use PFAS today. Scott Faber, senior vice president of governmental affair for the Environmental Working Group, said manufacturers did not disclose the harms of PFAS to legislators.
“So we’re all playing catch-up in part because of the failure — the intentional failure — by the big manufacturers of these chemicals to hide these risks from all of us, especially their neighbors and workers,” Faber said.
Deputy Director of the Delaware River Keepers, Tracy Carluccio, brought attention to oil and gas companies as part of the contamination problem.
“Oil and gas use PFAS in drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is an uncontrolled and unmonitored pathway of contamination that allows PFAS compounds to enter the environment,” Carluccio said.
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Faber says while residents shouldn’t have to search for the ingredients themselves, they can use EWG’s app SkinDeep to identify personal care products without PFAS.
Gretchen Salters, strategic advisor for SaferStates, said arguments for using PFAS are based on myths such as certain PFAS are necessary or the essential uses framework in unworkable.
“The notion that PFAS are the only way to meet our climate challenges is patently false and a dishonest attempt to convince those who are committed to confronting the climate crisis that they have to trade public health for the environment,” Salters said.
The panelists urged legislators to push back against narrowing the definition of PFAS or changing the legislation to benefit manufacturers. Faber said pushing bans through has been effective in halting the production of consumer goods with PFAS.
“I think this is not a partisan issue when you talk to neighbors. There’s not a single person I’ve ever knocked on a door anywhere in this state that doesn’t think we need clean air, clean water and have that right,” Muth said.
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