In 2021 James Kenney and his husband were in a huge store with a box, buying a piece of furniture when the seller asked if they would like to protect fabric. Kenney, secretary of the office of the Fresh Mexico Department of the Environment, asked to check the product sheet. Both he and his husband were shocked seeing chemicals forever mentioned as ingredients in protection.
“I think about your normal, everyday new Mexico who is trying to survive, make their furniture last a little longer, and they think:” Oh, it’s secure, great! ” This is not safe – he says. “It just so happens that they tried to sell it to the secretary of the environment.”
Last week, the legislator in Nowy Mexico adopted a few bills that hope Kenney would help protect consumers in his condition. If he was signed by the governor, legislation would ultimately prohibit consumer products that added pfa- alkyl substances with electricity and polyflowed, colloquially known as “eternal chemicals” due to their durability in the environment- from selling in New Mexico.
Because the fears regarding health and environment regarding eternal chemicals at national level Fresh Mexico joins the tiny, but growing number of states that aim to limit – and in some cases Ban – PFA in consumer products. Fresh Mexico is now the third country that has adopted a ban on PFAS by the legislator. Ten other states have bans or limits of added PFA in some consumer products, including kitchen utensils, rug, clothing and cosmetics. This year, at least 29 States-Record Countrys analysis Sheltered state accounts, networks of state -owned state organizations working on issues related to potentially risky chemicals.
The industry of chemical and consumer products drew attention to the new wave of regulations and post a counterattack, lobbying state legislators in order to rely on the safety of their products – and, in one case, posing to prevent the provisions of the provisions. Some of the key dismissals made in Nowy Mexico emphasize some of the great fights that industries hope they will win in state countries throughout the country: fights that are already taking to the newly friendly industry of the Environmental Protection Agency in the USA.
PFAS is not only one chemicals, but a class of thousands. The first PFA was developed in the 1930s; Thanks to their properties and exceptional durability, their popularity has increased in industrial and consumer applications in the post -war era. Chemicals were soon ubiquitous in American life, covering kitchen utensils, preventing the coloring of furniture and carpets and acting as a surface -open agent in fire foam.
In 1999, the man in West Virginia submitted lawsuit Against the American chemical giant Dupont claiming that pollution from his factory killed his cattle. The claim revealed that Dupont has been hiding evidence of the negative impact of PFAS health on employees for decades. Since then, the chemical industry has paid billions of fees for settlements around PFAS processes: In 2024, American international 3M he agreed to pay From 10 to 12.5 billion dollars for American public water systems, which detected PFA in their water resources to pay for repair and future tests, although the company did not confess. (Dupont and its separate Chemourus chemical company still deny all offenses in the lawsuits, including the original suit of Western Virginia.)