James in 2021 Kenny and his husband bought a piece of furniture in a large store when the sales partner asked them if they wanted to add fabric protectors. Kenney, Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Environment, asked to view the product data sheet. He and his husband are both chemical engineers and are shocked to see chemicals that are forever listed as protective agents.
“I think of your normal state of New Mexico, and they try to pass, make the furniture last longer, and they think, ‘Oh, it’s safe, great!’ It’s not safe,” he said. “It happened that they tried to sell it to the Environmental Secretary.”
Last week, the New Mexico Legislature passed two bills Kenny hopes to help protect consumers in his state. If signed by the governor, the legislation would ultimately prohibit the sale of PFAs in New Mexico because of their persistence in the environment, commonly known as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment.
As health and the environment focus on eternal chemicals nationwide, New Mexico joins a handful of but increasing number of states that are limiting restrictions (in some cases bans) in consumer products. New Mexico is now the third state to pass a PFA ban by the legislature. Ten other states have added PFA to certain consumer products, including cookware, carpets, clothing and cosmetics. This year, at least 29 countries (record numbers) have already made bills related to PFA before the state legislature. analyze Safer State’s bill, a state-based network of advocacy organizations dedicated to issues surrounding potentially unsafe chemicals.
The chemical and consumer goods industry has taken note of this new wave of regulations and has launched counterattacks, lobbying the state legislature to advocate for the safety of its products and in one case filed lawsuits to prevent the law from taking effect. Some of the major exemptions made by New Mexico highlight some of the big fights that the industry hopes they can win in state legislatures across the country: They have fought in the newly friendly U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
PFA is not only a chemical substance, but also thousands of chemical substances. The first PFA is developed In the 1930s; thanks to their non-stick properties and unique durability, they became more and more popular in industrial and consumer use in the post-war era. These chemicals soon became ubiquitous in American life, painted cookware, prevented furniture and carpet staining, and acted as surfactants in fire foam.
In 1999, a West Virginia man proposed litigation Opposing American chemical giant Dupont claims that its factory pollution is killing his cattle. Dupont has covered evidence of PFAS’ negative impact on government workers for decades, the lawsuit shows. In the years since, the chemical industry has paid billions of dollars in settlements around PFA litigation: 3M US multinational corporations in 2024 Agree to pay The U.S. public water systems are between $10 billion and $12.5 billion, and these public water systems have found PFA in their water supplies to pay for remedial and future testing, although the company is not responsible. (DuPont and its independent chemical company, Chemistry, continue to deny any misconduct in the lawsuits involving them, including the original West Virginia lawsuit).
