by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT — A group of 15 attorneys general is opposing efforts by the Trump administration to roll back data reporting and record keeping for PFAS “forever chemicals,” according to a statement from Attorney General William Tong.
In a comment letter sent Monday to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, the attorneys general oppose rollbacks to PFAS reporting requirements mandated by Congress in 2019 under the Toxic Substances Control Act and promulgated by EPA in October 2023. Under the reporting requirements, manufacturers and importers of PFAS are asked to report whatever information they already know about the PFAS in their products, during a one-time reporting requirement currently scheduled to begin in April 2026. This would include information such as the identities and amounts of PFAS chemicals manufactured, any known effects on human health or the environment, and how many workers are exposed to these chemicals.
PFAS, which stands for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, are a group of thousands of manmade chemicals that have been used in numerous consumer products since the 1940s, including clothing, non-stick cookware, food packaging, car seats and strollers, stain resistant furnishings, and floor waxes. But certain manufacturers spent decades hiding that their PFAS were toxic and contaminated human blood, Tong said. State and federal regulators are still uncovering the chemicals in household items and the PFAS reporting rule is an important tool to do that, Tong said.
“PFAS forever chemicals are a toxic menace to human health and our environment,” Tong said. “Trump’s latest effort to gut PFAS regulation is an insult to the families, workers, and especially the firefighters who have been disproportionately exposed to these dangerous chemicals. We urge the EPA to abandon this proposal.”
If adopted, the Trump Administration proposal would shield from reporting over 98 percent of entities that are expected to have relevant, vital information about PFAS under six new carveouts that had been previously considered and rejected by EPA. The proposed new exemptions include: an exemption for articles with PFAS concentrations below 0.1%; an imported articles exemption; an exemption for PFAS manufactured as byproducts; an exemption for PFAS manufactured as impurities; an exemption for PFAS manufactured as non-isolated intermediates; and a research and development exemption.
Today, nearly all humans have PFAS in their blood. PFAS chemicals are toxic and can persist in the environment indefinitely. PFAS chemicals can travel through the environment, including into drinking water sources, and accumulate in human blood. Even modest releases of PFAS can cause widespread pollution and damage.
The EPA itself has concluded that many PFAS are known to cause severe adverse human health effects, including increased risk of kidney, breast, pancreas, prostate, and testicular cancers, liver damage, decreased birth weight and birth defects, decreased vaccine response, high cholesterol, and infertility, according to the EPA website.
In their comment letter, the attorneys general urge the agency to preserve the integrity of the rule and to continue collection of PFAS data.
“If EPA adopts its proposal as a final rule, vital information about the types of PFAS used in American commerce and the risks these chemicals pose will remain hidden away, needlessly undermining States trying to protect human health and the environment,” the attorneys general write.
Tong has two pending lawsuits against 28 chemical manufacturers he said were responsible for knowingly contaminating Connecticut waters and natural resources and harming public health with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals.”
The complaints seek both injunctive and monetary relief — compelling the companies to dispose of their toxic chemical stocks, abate all pollution in Connecticut, disclose all research, and to compensate the state for past and future remediation and testing expenses. The complaints seek tens of thousands of dollars per day in penalties for widespread violations of numerous state laws dating back decades.