New PFAS Significant New Use Rules Could Confound Processors And Users

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) intends to issue in the coming months as many as 150 Significant New Use Rules (SNURs) for individual per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that were previously authorized for use in the US under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) new chemicals review program. Doing so is likely to confound companies that received those prior authorizations, as well as potentially countless businesses that might be actively processing or using those substances in the US.

Recent announcements of this effort by the senior leadership of the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention may have gone unnoticed by potentially affected businesses because the remarks were made at a conference which is typically attended by chemical manufacturers, but perhaps not by the companies that acquire and use formulations and end use products that might contain PFAS. Moreover, because many significant new use rules pertain to chemical