USA: New US lawsuit targets ‘forever chemicals’ in plastic food containers

There are more than 7 million PFAS and over 21 million fluorinated compounds listed in PubChem (2023).
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USA: New US lawsuit targets ‘forever chemicals’ in plastic food containers

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New US lawsuit targets ‘forever chemicals’ in plastic food containers

Suit alleges Inhance failed to follow EPA rules involving dangerous PFAS chemicals and asks a judge to halt production

The Guardian - December 27, 2022

A new lawsuit says many plastic containers used in the US to hold food, cleaning supplies, personal care items and other consumer products are likely to be contaminated with toxic PFAS. It is now asking federal courts to halt their production.

The suit references soon-to-be-published research that found PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) from HDPE (high-density polyethylene) plastic containers leach at extremely high levels into ketchup, mayonnaise, olive oil and everyday products.

Inhance, a Houston-based company named as a defendant, produces tens of millions of consumer containers that contain PFAS, the consumer advocacy groups behind the lawsuit say. The plaintiffs ask a judge to order Inhance to follow Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that require it to receive approval for its production process.

The groups also charge that regulators have known of the potential health threat since early 2021 but have failed to eliminate it.

“It’s a grave concern for me that these containers are used for food, full stop,” said Kyla Bennett, a former EPA scientist who is now with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, which brought the suit with the Center for Environmental Health.

“[Regulators] have known about this for a while and nobody has taken strong action to stop it, which is mind-boggling.”

PFAS are a class of about 12,000 compounds typically used to make products resist water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down. They are linked to cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders, birth defects and other serious health problems.

Inhance treats plastic containers with fluorinated gas to create a barrier that helps keep products from degrading. The consumer groups say the process creates PFAS as a byproduct, including PFOA, one of the most dangerous of the class. EPA rules implemented in 2020 require companies manufacturing long-chain PFAS to submit for a safety review and approval.

The suit alleges that Inhance failed to do so, and asks a judge to order the company “to cease and desist from all manufacture and processing of [long chain PFAS] during the fluorination of plastic containers”.

In a statement to the Guardian, the Inhance chief commercial officer, Patricia van Ee, said: “We have been, and continue to be, in full compliance with all relevant regulations.”

The company learned from the EPA of the “potential for certain PFAS to be unintentionally produced in very low concentrations” and developed a method for reducing the chemicals to an undetectable level, Van Ee added.

The suit contradicts that claim. The EPA has found that virtually no level of exposure to PFOA is safe in drinking water.

Heather Whitehead, a researcher on a forthcoming University of Notre Dame study that found PFAS in plastic consumer products, said testing found two PFAS compounds leached at levels millions of times above the EPA advisory limits for drinking water. No legal limits have yet been set for food or for some compounds found in containers, though some governments are moving to ban the entire PFAS class.

Products leach more PFAS as they remain in the container, Whitehead said. She added that it was impossible to tell which containers are contaminated by looking at them but sturdier containers were more likely to have PFAS than those that crumple easily. Notre Dame has only tested HDPE containers and will next check those made of PET, or polyethylene terephthalate.

The new lawsuit was filed under a provision in US law that allows citizens to bring suits against polluters allegedly violating rules and not being held accountable by regulatory agencies.

The law requires citizens to first file a “notice of intent to sue”, giving companies and regulators 60 days to address the problem. The notice was filed in late October. Inhance continues producing fluorinated bottles.

The EPA filed suit against Inhance on 21 December. The suit was heavily redacted to conceal any mention of the company’s PFAS production because the agency cannot reveal confidential business practices. The redactions make it unclear if the EPA is asking the court to order Inhance to immediately halt production. The EPA did not comment.

Court filings show the EPA and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew of the contamination over the last two years but have failed to stop production.

Bennett raised the alarm about PFAS in pesticides in December 2020. Several months later, the EPA issued a report on the likelihood that plastic fluorination was contaminating industrial containers with PFAS.

Last month, 3M and DuPont de Nemours Inc were among several companies to be sued by California’s attorney general to recover cleanup costs.

The EPA in January 2021 subpoenaed Inhance for information on its process. In July 2021, the Guardian reported on the use of PFAS in industrial containers that hold ingredients for food, essential oils and other products. The FDA told the Guardian it was waiting on the EPA for more information about whether PFAS could leach into food.

In March 2022, the EPA issued a violation notice ordering Inhance to “immediately cease” production if it had not yet eliminated the PFAS contamination. Inhance did not respond until September, stating it would submit its process for review while refusing to cease production. Still, the EPA did not file a lawsuit or alert the public.

The consumer groups behind the suit grew suspicious that contaminated bottles were being widely distributed. In July 2022, container testing began. Once the lawsuit was filed, the EPA filed its own suit 56 days later.

The agency had been “playing footsies” with Inhance instead of taking forceful action, said Bob Sussman, an attorney for the consumer groups.

The FDA wrote in a December letter to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility there was no evidence food was being stored in containers produced by Inhance. Despite the remaining questions, the FDA is not testing plastic food packaging for PFAS.

“We don’t think the EPA or FDA has any idea how widespread this is, or how much contamination this is resulting in, and that’s a problem,” Bennett said. “Why is it being left to NGO’s to do this?”

SOURCE:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... icals-pfas
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