Forever chemicals' broad reach

Presented by The American Beverage Association:

Apr 14, 2022 View in browser   By Jordan Wolman Presented by THE BIG PICTURE America is just beginning to come to grips with the scale and scope of contamination from a large group of human-made chemicals known collectively as PFAS. It's still not entirely clear whether their mere presence is all bad — but it's clear that they're everywhere. The same properties that make them useful in items like non-stick cookware and firefighting foams are what also make them so hard to clean up when they migrate into soil and water, potentially leading to health impacts at high levels of exposure. Research out today from the Environmental Working Group sheds new light on PFAS contamination on cropland. About 5 percent of all U.S. farm fields, or 20 million acres, could be contaminated by PFAS. How did it get there? Largely from sludge farmers have applied to their fields as fertilizer. There's potential for PFAS to contaminate the sludge, which is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process, by infiltrating landfills and industrial discharges. When these chemicals then contaminate crops and animals, those products can then be unsafe to consume and farmers can suffer as a result. Two dairy farms in Maine, for instance, have been shut down due to unsafe PFAS contamination, and legislators there are looking to ban the sludge unless it has been tested. More broadly, EWG came out last October with data showing that 2,854 additional locations across the country in all 50 states are contaminated with PFAS. Nearly 700 of those are military sites. Source: Safer States As the issue has gotten more attention, put on the map in recent years through investigative reporting by The Intercept and the 2019 movie "Dark Waters," there's been a flurry of activity at all levels of government to restrict the presence of PFAS or rule on who is liable when victims are exposed. Shelly Oren, a policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said the group is tracking more than 200 PFAS-related bills in statehouses this year, up from 180 bills in 2020 and 76 in 2018. The number of individual companies or groups lobbying on PFAS at the federal level has jumped from just one in 2017 to 164 in 2021, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The breadth of the usage of these chemicals is reflected in the diversity of such bills: California is considering a ban on PFAS in cosmetics, Maryland has prohibited certain PFAS chemicals in firefighting foam, and Maine passed arguably the broadest bill ending the sale of intentionally added PFAS in most products starting in 2030. A number of states have passed limits on PFAS concentrations in drinking water.   INTRODUCING DIGITAL FUTURE DAILY - OUR TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER, RE-IMAGINED:  Technology is always evolving, and our new tech-obsessed newsletter is too! Digital Future Daily unlocks the most important stories determining the future of technology, from Washington to Silicon Valley and innovation power centers around the world. Readers get an in-depth look at how the next wave of tech will reshape civic and political life, including activism, fundraising, lobbying and legislating. Go inside the minds of the biggest tech players, policymakers and regulators to learn how their decisions affect our lives. Don't miss out, subscribe today.     Some states are targeting chemical companies themselves, like a bill in New Hampshire that would make a plastics company pay for water remediation. Another bill poised to be signed into law in Vermont gives residents exposed to toxic chemicals the right to sue companies for medical monitoring expenses. Efforts like these are picking up steam: Environmentalists are joining with firefighters and farmers in some instances to fight for restrictions, and many PFAS-related bills are garnering bipartisan support. "PFAS contamination is certainly a cross-cutting issue that impacts everyone — rural communities, urban communities, farmers, hunters, indigenous communities — so there's potential to build a diverse coalition that transcends ideological lines," said Tricia Rouleau, the farm network director at Maine Farmland Trust. Source: Safer States   A message from The American Beverage Association: At America's beverage companies our plastic bottles are made to be remade. We're carefully designing them to be 100% recyclable, including the caps—so every bottle can become a new one. That means less plastic waste in our environment. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org   So where do chemical companies and their lobbying arms stand on these efforts? It's a mixed bag. The American Chemistry Council, for instance, opposes the California bill to ban PFAS in cosmetics, but "has supported state legislation to eliminate the use of PFAS in firefighting foams used during training and testing exercises," the group wrote in a statement. One thing the ACC, DuPont de Nemours Inc. and 3M Co. all agree on: that the EPA's process for potentially adding certain PFAS chemicals to the agency's list of hazardous substances under the Superfund law is unnecessary and inappropriate. Doing so could allow the EPA to force companies liable for excessive PFAS discharges to help pay for the ensuing cleanup. The EPA is expected to announce a proposed rule in the coming month or two.   A message from The American Beverage Association:   YOU TELL US Team Sustainability is editor Greg Mott, deputy editor Debra Kahn, reporters Lorraine Woellert and Catherine Boudreau, and digital producer Jordan Wolman. Reach them at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com, lwoellert@politico.com, cboudreau@politico.com and jwolman@politico.com. Want more? Don't we all. Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still free!   A message from The American Beverage Association: America's leading beverage companies - The Coca-Cola Company, Keurig Dr Pepper and PepsiCo - are working together to reduce our industry's plastic footprint through our Every Bottle Back initiative. We're investing in efforts to get our bottles back so we can remake them into new bottles and use less new plastic. Together, we're: · Designing 100% recyclable plastic bottles – we're making our bottles from PET that's strong, lightweight and easy to recycle. · Investing in community recycling – we're marshalling the equivalent of nearly a half-billion dollars with The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners to support community recycling programs across multiple states. · Raising awareness – we're adding on-pack reminders to encourage consumers to recycle our plastic bottles and caps. Our bottles are made to be remade. Please help us get Every Bottle Back. EveryBottleBack.org   WHAT WE'RE CLICKING — In the rush to decarbonize, the debate over the effectiveness of carbon capture and storage is heating up, the AP reports. — Warehouses, buoyed by a pandemic-fueled spike in online shopping, are getting increased attention to go greener, according to the New York Times. — Watch out, Tesla: A Mercedes electric vehicle just drove more than 1,000 kilometers on a single charge. Bloomberg has the story.   STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president's ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today.       Follow us on Twitter Catherine Boudreau @ceboudreau Debra Kahn @debra_kahn Greg Mott @gwmott Lorraine Woellert @Woellert Jordan Wolman @jordanwolman   Follow us

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