California bill would ban ‘forever chemicals’ by 2030

By Camille von Kaenel | 02/22/2024 12:06 PM EST

The bill is the state’s most ambitious swing yet at the ubiquitous chemicals that have been linked to cancer.

SACRAMENTO, California — A California bill banning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances will be amended to impose a 2030 end date on the use of “forever chemicals,” its sponsor announced Wednesday.

State Sen. Nancy Skinner said she would amend her S.B. 903, introduced last month, to include the 2030 end date. The bill would ban products that contain toxic PFAS from sale or use in the state unless manufacturers can show there’s no alternative to their use.

The Berkeley Democrat’s bill is the state’s most ambitious swing yet at PFAS, the group of chemicals linked with cancer that are contained in daily products from packaging to menstrual products and that have made their way into the environment and most human bodies.

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California has previously passed laws banning PFAS in food packaging, cosmetics, firefighting foam and children’s cribs and playpens. But the chemicals “still remain in hundreds of products sold and used in our state, and these forever chemicals are increasingly found in our drinking water, our food, our clothes, and our bodies,” Skinner said in a statement.

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