New York State has long been a national leader in the environmental movement.
In 2016, the state joined Vermont and New Hampshire in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take action against PFAS – a.k.a. “forever chemicals” – contamination and pollution. This led to the EPA issuing a lifetime health advisory regarding exposure to these chemicals in drinking water.
Now, we are urging the New York State Legislature to take much more strident action by passing comprehensive laws to help the state protect its citizens against dangerous PFAS chemicals.
The state had a chance to do that this past June, but legislators failed to act. Although the legislature likely will not convene again until early January 2025, we are writing about this issue now because we are in an important election year and your votes up and down the ballot matter.
On November 5, in addition to the presidential election, the entire New York state legislature – 63 state senators and 150 state assembly members – will be elected. We urge all our supporters and fellow advocates to urge candidates, if elected, to take action in 2025 to help eliminate PFAS from our products and our environment.
The background
PFAS, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of chemicals that have been used since the 1940s. These chemicals, now linked to serious health problems such as cancer, birth defects and kidney and thyroid disease, can be found in rugs, clothing, cookware, furniture, house paint, personal care items and menstrual items and more. PFAS are in our drinking water, in the air and in the soil.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) describes it this way: “PFAS are a group of chemicals used to make fluoropolymer coatings and products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. Fluoropolymer coatings are blends of resins and lubricants used in products such as water-repellent clothing, furniture, adhesives, paint and varnish, food packaging, heat-resistant non-stick cooking surfaces and insulation of electrical wires.”
The NYSDEC goes on to explain that although the use of these chemicals is being phased out, they are still being used and that they pose a continuous hazard to human health because they don’t “break down easily and persist for a long time in the environment.”
For decades before the public became aware, the leading manufacturers and users of PFAS chemicals were aware these posed a health risk to humans.
According to Newsweek, reporting on a finding by the Environmental Working Group, the states of New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania have the most highly contaminated drinking water systems.
In New York State, about 50 percent of the state’s public water systems have “detected some level of PFAS contamination,” and about 250 such systems have exceeded the state’s PFOA and PFOS drinking water standards or maximum contamination levels, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). And about 2 million New Yorkers who get their drinking water from private wells do not have the necessary info to determine if their water is contaminated.
However, in 2024, the EPA issued stricter rules regarding PFAS-contaminated drinking water. With these new rules about to go into effect, the number of New York water systems in non-compliance are expected to double, to an estimated 548 systems, the NRDC says.
“People are exposed to PFAS in water mainly through drinking and foods prepared with that water,” the New York State Department of Health writes on its website about PFAS contaminated water.
The NRDC estimates that 98 percent of people in the United States have PFAS in their blood, scary because of the “robust” scientific evidence linking PFAS exposure to a vast array of health problems, which also includes infertility and immunosuppression.
The EPA has issued a Strategic Roadmap for attacking the PFAS problem, setting forth a three R approach: Research, to better understand the toxicity of PFAS and their impact on human health and the environment; Restrict, to impose a comprehensive regulatory/statutory approach to prevent continued PFAS contamination of consumer products and air, land and water and to hold manufacturers and others in the the consumer chain of processing and distribution accountable; and Remediate, by broadening and accelerating the cleanup of PFAS contamination.
In 2024, the EPA took important steps in the government’s fight against PFAS, designating certain widely-used PFAS “as hazardous substances” under the Superfund act, hoping to improve transparency and accountability. In addition, the EPA issued its first national, legally-enforceable water standard to reduce PFAS exposure to approximately 100 million people, the EPA said.
But in its Strategic Roadmap, the EPA made it clear that not only Washington, but also local and state governments need to act. “Every level of government – federal, Tribal, state, and local – needs to exercise increased and sustained leadership to accelerate progress to clean up PFAS contamination, prevent new contamination and make game-changing breakthroughs in the scientific understanding of PFAS,” the EPA wrote.
So the burden is on all states, including New York, to take decisive action as quickly as possible.
In 2023, the New York legislature passed a law restricting PFAS use in apparel and outdoor apparel used in severe wet conditions that will be phased in over several years. But in June, the legislature failed to pass a much broader package of laws. That proposed legislation is designed to reduce human exposure to PFAS on a wide scale, address the continuing contamination of our drinking water and provide for greater transparency about how, why and where PFAS are entering the environment.
“Whether we’re talking about paint, cleaning materials, cookware, or any number of other items, PFAS toxins have no place in the products we use every day,” said Andrew Williams, NYLCV Deputy Director for State Policy. “This legislation will help ensure fewer of these forever chemicals reach the market shelves and, critically, it will ensure transparency when they do, before they can do harm to unsuspecting consumers.”
“It is unconscionable to allow substances like lead, mercury, or countless other proven toxins to be used in menstrual products where they can damage women’s health, but that is exactly what has been allowed to happen in New York,” NYLCV President Julie Tighe added.
We urge all voters to reach out to candidates and encourage them, if elected, to support PFAS legislation. It’s time for all PFAS to be eliminated from consumer products and that, likewise, our air, soil and drinking water become free of these dangerous chemicals.
Peter Aronson, a volunteer writer at the New York League of Conservation Voters since September 2022, is a former journalist and retired attorney. He is the author of Mandalay Hawk’s Dilemma: The United States of Anthropocene, a novel for middle-grade readers about kids fighting global warming. Kirkus Reviews, in a starred review, wrote: “A scathing work and an essential blueprint for youth battling climate change.” To read more about Peter, visit his website www.peteraronsonbooks.com or to purchase his book, click here.