Feds' decision to ease PFAS rules based on industry study

Federal officials are relying on research by chemical industry researchers to exclude Teflon and other fluoropolymers, a type of toxic "forever chemical," from proposed rules to protect human health and the environment. The exclusion aligns with industry demands aimed at weakening the planned measures. 

The decision to use the 2022 study – which states that the authors work for the fluoropolymer industry – as a major justification to exclude the compounds raises questions about the government's claim the move will not harm people and the environment, observers say.

The study's lead author, Stephen H. Korzeniowski, states on his website he has over a decade experience lobbying Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Health Canada, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other national regulators on behalf of former employer, chemical giant DuPont, and other industry groups. 

"The government should not be relying on industry-drafted papers, especially one that is so purely written by the industry that profits from fluoropolymers being excluded from the PFAS class," said Elaine MacDonald, health communities program director at Ecojustice. 

Per- and poly-fluoroakyll substances (PFAS) are a class of about 15,000 toxic grease- and water-resistant chemicals used in everything from firefighting foam to food wrappers. Now found in the blood of nearly everyone on Earth, the chemicals can harm the reproductive and endocrine systems, increase the risk of certain cancers, and lead to developmental delays in children. 

As their nickname – "forever chemicals" – suggests, PFAS accumulate in animals including humans, do not break down in nature, can move easily around the world in water, air and organisms and can persist for decades in the environment. Growing alarm about the chemicals has prompted global efforts to regulate them, including in Canada where the government last year proposed to list the entire class of chemicals as toxic. 

But in July, ECCC backtracked on the proposal. In an updated draft, the ministry announced it would exclude fluoropolymers – a type of plastic that includes Teflon, and one of the largest productions and applications of PFAS – from the toxic listing. It justified the exclusion by saying that fluoropolymers "may" expose people to fewer risky chemicals than other types of PFAS. 

That decision is based primarily on the 2022 study, which concluded fluoropolymers are less likely to spread widely through the environment than other PFAS. The study's conflict of interest declaration states that "the authors are employed by companies that commercially manufacture fluoropolymers." Some of the companies that manufacture those chemicals, including 3M, have been accused of deliberately hiding the health and environmental effects of their products over decades. 

Unlike other PFAS, fluoropolymers are integrated into plastic products and less likely than their chemical cousins to leach into the environment. This relative immobility is the basis for the chemical industry's argument that fluoropolymers are less harmful than other PFAS and should be excluded from stricter regulations. 

But researchers say focusing on the environmental impacts and potential health harms of the finished products alone hides their actual environmental impact. Manufacturing Teflon and other fluoropolymers uses other, more dangerous PFAS chemicals. These compounds are known to contaminate the environment surrounding manufacturing facilities, said Rainer Lohmann, a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. 

"Basically, anywhere where there's a major fluoropolymer producer, they seem to have succeeded in contaminating the entire region with their production process," he said. 

MacDonald, from Ecojustice, added that fluoropolymers can also break down into microplastics, which have been found everywhere on Earth and in human bodies. There is growing evidence these tiny particles harm human health and leach harmful chemicals – including PFAS – into the environment and living organisms.  

Industry groups have been pushing federal officials to exclude fluoropolymers from the government's plans to more strictly regulate PFAS. This push for exclusion is evident in a 2023 submission by the the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada to government consultations on listing PFAS chemicals as toxic. 

According to Canada's federal lobbying registry, six chemical or energy companies – including Shell Canada – have also lobbied the government on PFAS-related issues in the past year. 

ECCC was given a day to respond to questions from Canada's National Observer on why it used the 2022 study as a source to justify excluding fluoropolymers from proposed PFAS rules, and why it did not highlight the authors' industry affiliation. It did not respond by deadline.

However, on Friday the ministry provided a statement stating it's "approach on PFAS is based on science. We have examined information from a wide range of sources (e.g., scientific journal articles, reports)...and currently our conclusions show that fluoropolymers may not be bioavailable nor mobile...The Updated Draft State of PFAS Report did not make a conclusion for fluoropolymers; instead, they will be considered in a separate assessment."

The ministry's move to remove fluoropolymers from its proposed rules suggests those industry lobbying efforts have worked, MacDonald said. Using a study with self-declared ties to the chemical industry to back up the ministry's decision to exclude fluoropolymers "just kind of shows a little bit of what's happening behind the scenes in terms of where the government is taking the industry's word," she said.