Tip: Maybe Have A Regulation Before Regulating - Maine And The 2030 PFAS Ban

And we thought California was a bit nuts. Maine - and Washington State - seem to be in competition for the title. California is just one of several states that are part of the explosion of consumer chemical regulation in the last few years. Maine has been at the top of the list and serves as a cautionary tale of a state enacting a law that sounds simple enough and allows the legislature to claim an environmental and consumer safety win while saddling the enforcement agency with the impossible task of implementation. We see it here in California with several laws, the requirement for electric-only cars by 2035 is just one example.

Maine and the Aggressive PFAS Ban

Maine enacted perhaps the most stringent PFAS law in the country - or beyond. Passed in 2021, the law provides that by 2030 no manufacturer doing business in the state can sell a product containing "intentionally added" PFAS. (Title 38 section 1614) The statute says that "added" means "PFAS added to a