Photo by Seb_Ra, courtesy iStockphoto
Christina Heiniger built her Trenton, Maine, home using non- and low-toxic materials. So she was shocked when a 2022 test of her well water showed it was contaminated with so-called “forever chemicals.”
“I really expected my well to be clean,” Heiniger told The Nation's Health. “I thought I was just testing to be sure.”
Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, a group of more than 12,000 industrial chemicals, are found in drinking water systems across the U.S. Maine is one of several states leading the nation in adopting PFAS policies that ensure residents such as Heiniger are informed about the chemicals in their water and help protect them from harm.
PFAS are used to make products stain- and grease-proof and in firefighting foams. Unfortunately, PFAS are also linked to health issues such as cancer, infertility and immune system damage. The chemicals do not break down in the human body or the environment — earning them the “forever chemicals” nickname — and are so common that all Americans have PFAS in their blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Over a dozen states have adopted policies that ban or restrict PFAS in water systems and in manufactured products, such as cookware, clothing, fertilizer, food packaging and makeup. Maine has one of the nation's strictest consumer product bans, calling for a phaseout of intentionally added PFAS in nearly all products by 2032.
Maine's laws also ban the spread of PFAS-contaminated sludge on farmland, and require public water systems to reach allowable PFAS limits of no more than 20 parts per trillion for six combined chemicals by 2029, which is stricter than current federal standards.
Manufacturers are generally on board, according to Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, president and executive director of Defend Our Health, a Maine-based advocacy group that has helped pass state environmental laws. Focusing on a class of PFAS chemicals prevents industries from creating problematic replacements to circumvent bans, she said.
“I've been calling cookware companies that seem to have any minor compliance issues and they've been fixing them,” Carey Perez de Alejo told The Nation's Health, some within two days. “So it's been really exciting.”
Stain-resistant chemicals used in sofas and other household products can expose people to the harms of PFAS.
Photo by South_agency, courtesy iStockphoto
Restrictions across multiple states not only incentivize manufacturers to phase out PFAS from their products; they also help other states know which businesses are following the law. An existing California law that requires businesses to disclose PFAS in cookware has been a valuable resource for states such as Maine, Carey Perez de Alejo said.
Another pioneer in work to protect residents is Washington state, which identified PFAS chemicals as a threat as early as the 1990s, according to Laurie Valeriano, executive director of Toxic-Free Future, a Washington state-based environmental advocacy group. The state led the way in focusing on the chemicals as a class, and identified firefighting foam as the top source of PFAS drinking water contamination. It was the first to ban PFAS in firefighting foam, as well as food packaging.
“Instead of looking at ‘Well, how much of this chemical can people be exposed to before they get sick and die,' our state looks at it and goes ‘OK, what are the different sources of these really, really dangerous chemicals, and how do we prevent the chemicals from winding up in our homes, our communities, our environments?'” Valeriano told The Nation's Health.
The Washington State Department of Ecology has the authority to ban certain chemicals in consumer products if safer products are available and feasible, without deferring to the state legislature, according to Holly Davies, PhD, a senior toxicologist at the Washington State Department of Health.
“We used to go back to the legislature over and over again,” Davies told The Nation's Health.
Through a four-phase evaluation and rulemaking process, the department has agreed to bans of PFAS in carpets, rugs and aftermarket stain- and water-resistant treatments that went into effect in 2025, followed by a ban on leather and textile furniture and indoor furnishing that went into effect this year. A ban on PFAS in apparel, accessories, cleaning products and automotive washes goes into effect in 2027.
Harmful chemicals from consumer products can wind up in water supplies through PFAS-filled products in landfills, soil contamination and wastewater treatment. The problem prompted New Jersey to become the first state to set a drinking water standard and a maximum contaminant level for PFAS.
The state's Department of Environmental Protection set standards for one PFAS chemical, perfluorononanoic acid, in 2018, followed by standards for perfluorooctanoic and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid in 2020. The standards require public community water systems that serve at least 25 residents year-round to monitor their water systems and take corrective action to clean up water with chemicals that exceed up to 14 parts per trillion.
States have adopted policies that ban or restrict PFAS in products such as packaging, clothing and cosmetics such as nail polish.
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The enforcement is working. PFOA levels dropped by 55%, and PFNA by 50%, according to a study in the March issue of Environment International, which looked at 12,000 monitoring results over two decades from community water systems servicing nearly half of New Jersey.
“It's possible as we learn more about these health impacts we may find that these levels need to come down even more,” Hari Iyer, ScD, MPH, lead study author and assistant professor of cancer epidemiology and health outcomes at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, told The Nation's Health. “A lot of the work my group is doing, and many other groups around the country, is to try and really establish rigorous estimates of what these health impacts are. Because that's really what's needed to make sure we're appropriately setting these safe limits.”
But enforcing allowable limits is costly. Removing a pound of PFAS from water at a treatment facility can cost between $2.8 million and $18 million, according to James Kenney, secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department.
Home to three U.S. Air Force bases and their related contamination, New Mexico has some of the highest levels of PFAS in drinking water — as much as 24,000 parts per trillion, Kenney said.
New Mexico's Legislature recently allocated $12 million to help connect homes with contaminated private water wells to a safer public water source. The move is on top of the previously passed PFAS Protection Act in 2025, which will phase out PFAS in consumer products over several years, and eventually phase out virtually all products with intentionally-added PFAS by 2032.
“It's kind of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure and that's exactly what we're aiming to do over time — reduce PFAS exposures upstream so that we don't have to deal with it in our bodies, blood and generations to come,” Kenney told The Nation's Health.
Even as New Mexico and other states work to reduce PFAS exposure, the federal government has reneged on its promise to enforce drinking water standards. While the Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency adopted regulations that would restrict the amount of PFAS chemicals allowed in drinking water, the Trump-era EPA dropped regulations for multiple chemicals and delayed deadlines for water systems to reduce PFAS levels.
“The dichotomy here is that states are acting while the federal government is retracting,” Kenney said.
Carey Perez de Alejo said she is disappointed the federal government has walked away from science and health policy measures.
“It makes it more difficult and a little bit less certain for the utilities and for industry when the federal government does something like that, which is why the states are responding in a collaborative and coordinated way,” Carey Perez de Alejo said. “We want to make consumer safety and community safety something that is easy and the default.”
Heiniger, who helped found the advocacy group PFAS Free Trenton, said public education will be key to persuading people to give up products such as waterproof rain coats and non-stick pots and pans. But she is grateful to live in a state that takes the dangers of PFAS seriously.
“Somebody has to lead the way, and Maine is,” Heiniger said. “That's a really positive thing.”
For more information, visit www.defendourhealth.org and www.toxicfreefuture.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
