Dive Brief:
- Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Madeleine Dean reintroduced legislation on Feb. 1 in the House and Senate to make it easier for individuals to sue forever chemical makers over PFAS exposure.
- The PFAS Accountability Act would add a legal claim to the Toxic Substances Control Act to allow individuals to hold manufacturers responsible if they have been significantly exposed to forever chemicals.
- The legislation would also make it easier for individuals to receive medical monitoring after PFAS exposure, and would allow courts to mandate companies conduct additional studies or investigations regarding the toxic substances’ impact on public health.
Dive Insight:
While companies like DuPont de Nemours and 3M have agreed to pay billions of dollars to resolve PFAS-related drinking water contamination claims in recent months, the proposed law would open a clearer pathway for individual residents to sue forever chemical makers.
The multi-billion-dollar settlements are only over alleged contamination of a city’s water and natural resources, not for claims that the chemicals caused illnesses or other public health impacts. The PFAS Accountability Act, if passed, would also make it easier for the courts to award medical monitoring to individuals or people part of a class action lawsuit, according to Gillibrand’s press release.
Individuals will be considered “significantly exposed” to PFAS if they demonstrate they were present in an area where PFAS was released for at least one year, or provide bloodwork showing the presence of the chemicals in their body.
Studies have found forever chemicals may harm public health — PFAS exposure could alter metabolism and fertility, increase the risk of obesity and increase the risk of some cancers, according to the National Institute of Environmental Sciences.
Forever chemicals break down very slowly, and because they're used in everyday products such as cleaning supplies, cosmetics and food packaging, people are constantly exposed to the toxic substances that can build up in the bloodstream over time, the NIEHS said.
Since PFAS-related illnesses take years to develop in the bloodstream, the PFAS Accountability Act bill will ensure victims receive long-term care and medical monitoring, Gillibrand said in a Feb. 1 press release
“PFAS are dangerous, carcinogenic substances and the companies that knowingly manufactured them for years must be held accountable,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
Gillibrand and Dean first introduced the bills in 2021 alongside Rep. Dan Kildee, actor Mark Ruffalo and environmental attorney Robert Bilott. Ruffalo starred in the 2019 film “Dark Waters,” an adaptation of Bilott’s book, “Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle against DuPont.” However, both bills never made it past the introduction stage, and at the time, only two organizations supported the legislation.
This time, however, the lawmakers have built a strong group of supporters, Gillibrand’s staff told Manufacturing Dive in an email. Twelve organizations have endorsed the bill so far, including the International Association of Fire Fighters and the Southern Environmental Law Center.