Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-New Haven) is calling for a ban on all food packing products that contain the chemical PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
“Anything that has a slick service to prevent grease from going through, there’s a good chance it has PFAS,” said Brian Toal, the acting chief of the Environmental Health Section at the Department of Public Health. “Popcorn bags are the poster child for this and pizza boxes, but there are many others.”
PFAS is the same chemical in the foam that firefighters used to put out the fire after a fatal plane crash at Bradley International Airport last week. The foam ended up in a nearby brook and crews worked to clean it up and warned people to stay away from it.
Health officials say the chemicals don’t break down in your body or the environment.
DeLauro is calling for a ban and asking all “companies provide all the relevant data as required by the law, to test foods for the mixtures of PFAS in use, require companies to provide comprehensive estimates of environmental releases of their products and demand that the companies provide samples of their PFAS products that are in use.”
Toal also added that “the state of Washington has banned PFAS in all food packaging. As of 2022 all PFAS of any sort are going to be banned if the state of Washington can identify effective alternatives.”
