DEEP DIVE: Vermont Senator Shares Insights Into State's Dive Into Forever Chemicals

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Vermont’s Senate and House of Representatives passed Bill S.25 on 9 May 2024, which regulates certain products containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), ortho-phthalates, and triclosan. The bill bans the manufacture, sale, and distribution of various other consumer products that contain intentionally added PFAS, including food packaging, cosmetic products, cookware, juvenile products, and textiles. Further details on this bill can be found here.

We talked to Senator Virginia Lyons, the primary sponsor of S.25, to find out more about the passing of the bill and what it means for the public health of Vermonters and the environment of the state.

“It's a very important bill for us and I am excited about it,” Lyons said in the interview with 3E. “It was a combination of a lot of work that we've been doing over a number of years; not only on PFAS but other toxic chemicals in consumer products,” the senator added. Lyons is “very confident” that Governor Phil Scott will sign bill S.25 into law.

Legislative Report

Senator Lyons emphasized the legislative report required from local agencies under the bill as one of the highlights. “The real benefit of this bill is that we are asking for a legislative report back to implement a comprehensive plan for PFAS regulation,” she said.

For background, S.25 requires Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources to propose a program that aims to regulate the sale and distribution of consumer products that contain PFAS that could impact public health and the environment.

This program, among other things, will look into how information on PFAS-containing products can be communicated to the state, taking into consideration how other states have structured and implemented similar programs to identify the best practices.

It will also provide recommendations for the regulation of PFAS within consumer products that use recycled materials, including food packaging, cosmetic product packaging, and textiles, which are not currently covered under the bill.

By 1 November 2024, the Agency of Natural Resources must submit an implementation plan developed pursuant to this program, accompanied by corresponding draft legislation to the selected committees of the Vermont House of Representatives and Senate. “So it's coming very soon,” Lyons told 3E.

The legislative report is significant in that it would mandate local agency's efforts in further scrutinizing particular issues, such as the best practices of implementing a product notification requirement for PFAS-containing products. Lyons said there likely would be additional legislative activities on particular product categories, such as recycled products, as well.

“It would be legislation that recommends how we deal with everything from new products containing PFAS, to recycled products, to definition of incidental inclusion/unintentional addition of PFAS into consumer products,” said Lyons

She said she is confident that the bill has “asked the right questions” in the quest for implementation plans and draft legislation from local agencies. The next step would be to get “the right answers back, so that we can move forward with comprehensive oversight regulation.”

Moving Forward

Reflecting on the current approach of regulating PFAS, Lyons told 3E that “one of the important things that we've learned over time is going chemical-by-chemical or product-by-product is like Sisyphus,” a fitting metaphor of the sheer number of PFAS and potentially affected product categories that need to be tackled.

On that note, S.25 is unique in that it begins to view the issue of PFAS contamination reduction and control using a more holistic approach. “We want to stop the process of incrementalism and move forward with recommendations that can really begin to provide for protection of both public health and the environment,” said Lyons.

“This promises to be an opportunity for us to really take control of these 'forever chemicals,' FOREVER.”

Envisioning what a comprehensive regulatory framework would entail, the senator hopes that it will define what is allowable in products that come into the state of Vermont. Educating consumers about things that may include unintentionally added PFAS is also another critical element of this framework, according to the senator, who also talked about the importance and complexity of regulating unintentionally introduced PFAS. The inclusion of this concept in a piece of legislation can be crucial in protecting public health and the environment, but it's also extremely challenging given the potential magnitude of chemicals and products that may be affected.

“It's difficult to get at, because of the definition,” said Lyons. She continued to give an example of the difficulties associated with legislating unintentionally introduced PFAS, “Do you include the definition of PFAS that's used in production, but not integral to the product?” she pondered. The answer to that question could have a significant impact on the product categories to be regulated in Vermont. While the answer is unclear at the current moment, we can certainly expect more conversations and potential legislative activities on this topic in the long run.

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