Read the full article by Ani Freedman (InDepthNH.org)
“The House Commerce and Consumer Affairs Committee heard a new bill Tuesday that would prohibit certain consumer products in New Hampshire from intentionally adding PFAS, or forever chemicals.
Rep. Karen Ebel, D-New London, is the primary sponsor of the bill, known as HB 1649. Ebel is the chair of the Solid Waste Working Group at the Department of Environmental Services, which published a solid waste management plan last year that specified a reduction and diversion of materials containing PFAS would aid efforts to reduce toxicity of New Hampshire’s solid waste stream.
‘We have to stop using products with PFAS,’ Ebel told the committee on Tuesday afternoon.
PFAS chemicals, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are known as forever chemicals due to their slow breakdown over time. They have been linked to several adverse health impacts, according to the EPA, including hormonal interference, various cancers, and developmental effects on children. PFAS have become infamous in the town of Merrimack, where in 2016 high levels of the chemical PFOA was found in drinking water supply from the manufacturing company Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. The chemicals remain in the environment and the human body for years, bioaccumulating over time with increased exposure, such as through consumer products that many people are unaware contain PFAS.”