EPA quietly backtracks on claims US has phased out toxic Pfas compounds

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has quietly removed a claim from its website stating that the United States has phased out two particularly dangerous perfluorinated substances - PFOA and PFOS. Scientists classify PFOA as "carcinogenic to humans" and PFOS as "possibly carcinogenic." Despite this, the EPA continues to permit Houston-based Inhance to manufacture plastic containers from which PFOA has been found to leach into its contents at high levels.

The company produces up to 200 million of these containers annually, widely used across the US economy. Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist and now science policy director with the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), called the containers "an ongoing serious and ongoing threat to public health." Inhance has denied that the chemical leaks in discernible amounts, stating it is merely an "impurity."

The "phase-out" of PFOA and PFOS was initiated after documents from 2000s litigation revealed the chemicals' dangers, leading the EPA to reach an agreement with eight PFOA/PFOS producers to halt production in 2015, although not banning their use. The EPA's website previously asserted that the manufacture and import of PFOA had also been phased out in the US.

However, the agency now admits that PFOA is still being produced, imported, and used by companies. This change was made in response to a complaint from PEER, highlighting the discrepancy between the EPA's claims and the reality that PFOA is still being manufactured in the US.