October 25, 2022
In 1980, the federal government enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known by most as the “Superfund.” This enterprise remains our nation’s most ambitious and significant step in cleaning up contaminated toxic waste sites, for example, the infamous Love Canal in Niagara, N.Y. Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is deploying the Superfund to protect Americans from the next great chemical threat: dental floss.
In a move fitting for “Ripley’s Believe It or Not,” the EPA is in the process of crafting a new regulation under CERCLA that, because of the presence of a widely used chemical component, could require Americans to use special disposal practices for such daily household items as dental floss, shampoo, non-stick cookware, carpeting, rain and fire-retardant clothing, and countless other everyday products.
Regular trash bins for these items would be a no-no, and a violation may lead to criminal charges. Worse still, American manufacturers, product distributors and municipalities’ waste management and water treatment facilities that handle these components would be under the microscope and forced to spend billions to comply with the EPA’s new rule. The proposed regulation is a massive undertaking that will leave an enormous footprint across our entire economy. Yet, by every measure, the path necessary to implement this rule in a sound, efficient and scientific manner has yet to be paved.
The specific targets of EPA’s proposal are a handful of chemicals with long names, which are generally referred to as PFAS, or as some have dubbed them “forever chemicals” because they have been categorized as not breaking down over time. The EPA wants PFAS and its adjacents classified as hazardous chemicals under CERCLA. This designation would burden every business and consumer with obligations that the EPA has yet to sort out or provide the slightest bit of guidance.
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