Maine’s economy will take a big hit if changes are not made to a law mandating companies to report the content of PFAS in products they sell in the state, business leaders said in a press conference Monday.
“The notification section is unworkable,” said Patrick Woodcock, president and CEO of the Maine State Chamber of Commerce, which has 5,000 members. “If this statute is not amended this [legislative] session, there will be a complete rethinking of the long-term relationship with the state of Maine for some key employers.”
He did not quantify potential losses. He said businesses want the reporting requirement to be stricken from the statute and protections added for some key industries that are critical to the Maine economy. They are not asking for the entire law to be repealed, he said, but are hopeful the notification requirement will be amended this legislative session.
PFAS, or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, are man-made chemicals used in products from water-repellent clothing to nonstick cookware and some cosmetics. The chemicals have water-, heat- and grease-resistant properties. The so-called forever chemicals break down slowly in the environment and are linked to health issues including kidney cancer.
Until recently, manufacturers have not had to disclose which products contain PFAS. In January, Maine became the first state in the nation to require that reporting. Maine’s sweeping law would also effectively ban PFAS in most products sold in the state by 2030.
Minnesota floated a similar law last year banning the sale of certain products with PFAS that also will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2025.
The Maine Legislature and governor passed a law in June that extended the Jan. 1 deadline requiring manufacturers of products sold in Maine containing PFAS to report them. Now they have until January 2025. Maine had led the nation in launching a law requiring manufacturers to disclose PFAS in products sold in the state, but the January implementation was pushed back two years as environmental regulators remain understaffed and work to clarify reporting rules. The extra time still is not enough.
One reason is the sheer number of PFAS potentially in products, business leaders said. Another is the international nature of business, with components suppliers selling to other manufacturers who in turn add components and resell their products.
Animal products company IDEXX Laboratories, one of the state’s biggest employers, conducts 90 percent of its worldwide manufacturing in Westbrook, Geoff Baur, the company’s tax director, said. But only seven labs in the world can test for PFAS, and none of them are in the United States, he said. And those labs can only test for 70 out of the 15,000 compounds the company uses in its products.
Another issue in advancing a workable PFAS reporting requirement is that many businesses will not talk about it for fear of having their company stigmatized by customers and other businesses, said Stacey Keefer, executive director of the Maine Marine Trades Association.
Keefer said the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which is charged with rolling out the complex program, only has a couple staff people devoted to it.
The chamber also wants to add exemptions to the state’s complete ban of PFAS in 2030 to include aviation and defense contracts, Woodcock said. It also is looking to prohibit products faster by looking for substitutes that do not have PFAS in them.
Woodcock said no changes to the law have been proposed yet, but he hopes the Legislatures energy committee will review it in the coming weeks.
“The statute we’re talking about is requiring an unworkable notification by January 1 of next year or you cannot sell your product in the state of Maine,” Woodcock said. “That is a serious threat to all Maine businesses.”
Lori Valigra is an investigative environment reporter for the BDN’s Maine Focus team. She may be reached at [email protected]. Support for this reporting is provided by the Unity Foundation and donations by BDN readers.