Maine Environmental Regulators Move To Ban PFAS- 'Forever Chemicals' In Food Packaging 🍟

Maine environmental regulators move to ban PFAS in food packaging, Maine Public Radio, Aug. 14, 2023. - Ed.

(Photo: Burger King Whopper in a wrapper, left, next to a McDonald's Big Mac in a container).

Environmental and health groups are pushing dozens of fast food companies, supermarket chains and other retail outlets to remove PFAS from their packaging. Maine environmental regulators are moving forward with plans to ban the sale of food packaging made with PFAS, joining a small but growing number of states targeting a potential exposure pathway to the “forever chemicals.” For years, many food packaging manufacturers- including some with factories in Maine - have used PFAS coatings to keep paper-based containers from turning into soggy, greasy messes.

🍿 But the same durable chemical bonds that make PFAS so useful in nonstick cookware, waterproof fabrics and food packaging also prevent the compounds from breaking down easily in the body and the environment, hence the nickname "forever chemicals.” Scientific studies have also linked some PFAS to health problems such as cancer, kidney disease, low birth weight and disruption of the endocrine system. Maine was the 2nd state -after Washington- to pass a law in 2019 aimed at removing PFAS from fast-food wrappers, pizza boxes, picnic plates, take-out containers & other single-use food packaging.

Maine lawmakers opted to rely on Washington’s planned analysis of whether there were safer, affordable alternatives available in the marketplace before banning containers made with PFAS. Two studies later, Washington began prohibiting some food containers in Feb. And earlier this month, the Maine Dept. of Environmental Protection released concept draft language for rules that would ban PFAS in 9 types of food packaging. DEP Commissioner Melanie Loyzim said she hopes the Maine Board of Environmental Protection and the Legislature will approve the final rules next year.

But she described the proposal as being part of Maine’s 2-pronged approach to address both existing contamination and the PFAS still showing up in the waste stream.

"We've got it still coming into our waste stream and it's coming from things like PFAS in food packaging and PFAS in products”..Short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS is a family of more than 10,000 chemicals that are widely used in consumer products as well as high-tech equipment and firefighting foam. But the long-lasting chemicals are showing up in water supplies across the US. In Maine, testing has revealed dangerously high levels of older, toxic versions of PFAS in farm fields where sludge was used as fertilizer as well as in nearby wells and water sources...

- Read More,
https://www.mainepublic.org/environment-and-outdoors/2023-08-14/maine-environmental-regulators-move-to-ban-pfas-in-food-packaging