EPA PFAS phase-out claim quietly reversed as agency admits PFOA still made in US
The EPA last month reworded its website to withdraw the claim that PFOA and PFOS had been phased out in the United States, now saying quantities of PFOA may still be produced, imported and used by companies.
EPA PFAS phase-out claim quietly reversed as agency admits PFOA still made in US
What the EPA changed and why
Last month the EPA quietly changed wording on its website that had claimed PFOA and PFOS had been phased out in the United States, revising the EPA PFAS phase-out message it had long presented. The page previously said manufacture and import of PFOA had been phased out; it now reads: "Quantities of Pfoa may be produced, imported, and used by companies … ". The update also notes that PFOS is in US production in some "limited, ongoing uses".
The correction came after Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or Peer, filed a complaint under the Information Quality Act, which requires that data and information made public by federal agencies be complete and accurate. In a response dated 18 September, EPA assistant administrator Douglas Troutman wrote: "In response to Peer's request, the EPA is updating its websites.".
"In response to Peer's request, the EPA is updating its websites."
The original phase-out narrative traced back to 2015, when the EPA reached an agreement with eight PFAS producers to "phase out" production of the two chemicals. That deal followed landmark early 2000s litigation over DuPont's PFAS pollution in West Virginia.
The company still making PFOA barriers
The chemical the EPA now acknowledges is still being produced flows in part from a single Houston company. The agency has written that Inhance is "manufacturing" PFAS, and it allows the company to produce container barriers from which PFOA leaches at high levels into the containers' contents.
- Inhance makes up to 200m barriers annually for plastic containers used across the US economy.
- PFOA has been found to leach at high levels into the containers' contents.
- The company denies measurable leaching, saying any PFOA from its products is an "impurity".
- Inhance says it made adjustments to reduce by 90% the level of PFOA "impurities".
Inhance has also pushed back on the premise that it broke any rule, saying there was never a ban in place and that it was not one of the eight companies that agreed to stop producing PFOA in 2015. The company's chief commercial officer, Patricia van Ee, said: "Published peer-reviewed third-party risk assessments conclude that estimated exposure does not present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment," adding that Inhance shared process data with the EPA.
A six-year legal fight
The website update is the latest turn in a dispute that has run for six years over Inhance's PFOA-infused container barriers.
- In late 2020, testing by Peer found high levels of PFAS in pesticides stored in Inhance bins, bringing the issue to the EPA's attention.
- In March 2022, the EPA ordered Inhance to "immediately cease" production; Inhance issued a press release denying its products impart PFOA and did not stop.
- By December 2023, the EPA again ordered Inhance to stop making the containers. That ban was overturned by a federal appeals court.
- Peer later sued, but the case was dismissed after a federal judge ruled the group lacked standing.
Health stakes and next steps
The reason Peer keeps pressing is what the science says about exposure. The EPA has found that virtually no level of exposure to either PFOA or PFOS in drinking water is safe. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies PFOA as "carcinogenic to humans" and PFOS as "possibly carcinogenic". In the West Virginia DuPont litigation, an epidemiological panel found PFOA and PFOS likely causes of cancer, heart disease, liver disease and kidney disease.
Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist who is now science policy director at Peer, has called the containers an ongoing, serious threat to public health. She said the EPA had given a false impression by suggesting PFOA was not being produced in the US: "They were giving the false impression and saying, 'Nothing to see here because Pfoa is not being produced in the US.'".
"Now that EPA has admitted that these two legacy Pfas are still manufactured in the US, it is past time to take effective enforcement action."
Bennett welcomed the agency's new candor, but she framed the correction as proof of a larger problem. If a chemical has no safe level, she argued, allowing its manufacture at all makes no sense, and she said the episode shows phase-outs are inadequate and bans are needed, accusing the EPA of acting as an arm of industry under the Trump administration.
The EPA did not immediately provide a comment. With the website now acknowledging that PFOA and PFOS are still manufactured in the US, Peer is pressing the agency to move from correcting its pages to enforcing against the production it once said had ended.
