This is part of our series recapping sessions from the 2024 Hybrid IMDS, Product Compliance & Sustainability Conference.
What's happening today with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) in the U.S. and Canada? AIAG's “PFAS Experts Panel” covers the latest information.
Moderated by BCubed Consulting Founder Brenda Baney, Kevin DeBell discussed the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) rules and updates regarding PFAS reporting; Catherine Palin shared changes to state legislation; and William Heslip overviewed the most recent Canadian reporting requirements. Here are some highlights.
Update on the EPA’s Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6 Activities
Kevin DeBell, director of the data gathering, management, and policy division, EPA, shared a TSCA update. He pointed out that TSCA inventory is followed by prioritization, risk evaluation, and risk management. The 2024 proposed high-priority substances are Acrylonitrile, Acetaldehyde, Benzenamine, 4,4'-Methylene Bis(2-Chloroaniline) (MBOCA), and Vinyl chloride.
The PFAS 8(a)(7) Reporting Rule fulfills a statutory obligation and identifies data gaps of historical PFAS manufacturing. In September 2024, the EPA issued rules to begin the data submission period to July 11, 2025, and most reporters will have to complete reporting by Jan. 11, 2026. The EPA proposed the latest Section 8(d) Rule in March 2024, which covers 16 chemical substances. With the PFAS Landscape update, a total of 15,525 PFAS were identified and organized into 128 terminal categories in a September 2024 study.
“The agency is being ambitious in its effort to try to better understand PFAS, to take a deliberate regulatory approach to it,” DeBell said. “There are a lot of decisions we haven't made yet because we are still learning a great deal.”
Recap of State-Level PFAS Action in 2024
Catherine Palin, senior attorney and director of environmental policy, Alliance for Automotive Innovation, gave a state-level recap. She said the good news is that in 2024 no states passed bills completely phasing out PFAS in consumer products or requiring reporting for all consumer products.
However, bills with PFAS action passed in Colorado, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and eight categories were regulated in 2024 bills.
Maine passed substantial amendments to its PFAS law in LD 1537. It modified reporting such that it is only for products that receive a currently unavoidable use exemption. Most automotive uses were exempt.
Minnesota is working on three rulemakings to implement its PFAS program: reporting, fees, and currently unavoidable use exemptions. Some prohibitions start in 2025, and reporting will start in 2026. “Minnesota is now the hot new thing to watch,” Palin noted.
Canada PFAS Reporting Requirements
William Heslip, chemical regulatory compliance specialist, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies, went over reporting requirements in Canada. In July 2024, the Environment and Climate Change Canada published a notice requiring companies to report on their manufacture, import, and use of PFAS substances in order to gather information to later inform decision-making for risk management measures, likely in the form of future regulation.
The notice requires manufacturers, importers, and users of 312 PFAS substances to report information by Jan. 29, 2025, about their activities in Canada during the 2023 calendar year. “It has a lot of similarities to the EPA reporting requirements and the data they are looking for, but there are also a lot of differences,” he said. The main differences are the substances list and the 2023 timeline.
If an entity meets reporting thresholds and no exclusion applies, it must disclose company identifying information, facility information, information about the prescribed substances, information about goods containing a reportable substance manufactured in or imported into Canada, and additional technical data for fluoropolymers listed in Part 2 of Schedule 1.
Entities that import manufactured items falling outside the 12 listed categories only have to provide identifying information and descriptions of each manufactured item containing the substance, as well as technical data for any fluoropolymers contained in the items they import.
SAVE THE DATE FOR THE 2025 IMDS CONFERENCE
This topic and more will be covered at the 2025 Hybrid IMDS, Product Compliance & Sustainability Conference October 8–9, 2025, at Suburban Collection Showplace in Novi, Michigan. More details will be forthcoming.
