Efforts to address potential concerns with PFAS should be guided by a clear objective: protect public health and the environment through science-based, targeted policy.
As states continue evaluating PFAS legislation and regulatory frameworks, it is important that these policies recognize the significant differences among PFAS chemistries and uses and avoid unintended economic consequences that could affect U.S. industry, commerce, and global competitiveness.
Policies that overlook meaningful differences among PFAS chemistries and their uses can make it unnecessarily difficult to focus resources on priority concerns, advance cleanups where needed, and ensure protection of communities and state economies. State lawmakers and regulators who ignore the diversity of PFAS and choose to cast a broad net over a large swath of chemistries risk creating an unwelcome economic environment that could discourage investment in their state, reduce employment opportunities, and lead to higher costs on everyday products and technologies on which families and businesses rely.
Successful Policies Recognize That Not All PFAS Are the Same
Established scientific data demonstrate that PFAS are a diverse universe of chemistries with different physical and chemical properties, uses, and environmental and health profiles. For example, PFAS can be liquids, solids, or gasses, and these clear fundamental differences in physical structure demonstrate that it is not scientifically accurate or appropriate to treat all PFAS the same for purposes of regulation.
Effective policy should focus on priority substances and uses of concern rather than be distracted or waylaid by overly broad restrictions. Where appropriate, scientifically supported subgrouping can help guide proper assessment and regulation of PFAS with similar properties and uses while avoiding potential conflicts and frustrations that have arisen in several states due to one-size-fits-all approaches.
Fortunately, many states have taken a targeted approach that recognizes differences among PFAS chemistries and critical uses across the economy. By contrast, some of the broadest approaches have proven difficult to implement and have created significant unintended consequences.
Product Regulation Should Be Targeted and Science-Based
PFAS chemistries are critical to the reliable and safe function of products and technologies that underpin modern life, including semiconductors, electronics, medical devices, aerospace and defense, energy, advanced manufacturing, agriculture, and other sectors. Their unique properties—including durability, heat resistance, and chemical stability—often enable superior performance that cannot be readily replicated or substituted.
Broad policies that fail to distinguish among PFAS chemistries and uses can restrict access to chemistries with strong safety and environmental profiles, potentially leading to higher costs, limiting product availability, disrupting domestic manufacturing and supply chains, and impacting state and national priorities related to employment, energy, national security, and advanced manufacturing.
Innovation Is Already Delivering Results
It should be noted that PFAS policy is evolving while technology and industry practices are delivering measurable progress. Over the past two decades, industry has advanced stewardship, emissions reductions, treatment technologies, and next-generation solutions. Legacy substances such as PFOA and PFOS are no longer produced in the United States, and manufacturers and users of modern PFAS are implementing technologies and practices to minimize emissions.
Furthermore, new technologies continue to expand the tools available to communities addressing PFAS challenges. Advanced treatment technologies are being deployed and refined to remove PFAS from drinking water and destruction technologies continue to advance.
Public policy should build on that progress by encouraging rather than hindering the deployment of effective technologies that support continued innovation and accelerate practical, science-based solutions.
Measuring Success
Ultimately, PFAS policy should be measured by whether it delivers meaningful environmental and public health results. To do so, effective policies must be targeted, science-based, practical to implement, and focused on priority issues, and they should recognize the critical differences among PFAS chemistries and uses.
The bottom line is that getting PFAS policy right means protecting public health and the environment without undermining innovation, critical technologies, or economic competitiveness.
