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Environment officials and industries debate PFAS phase‑out timeline and exemptions in H.238
Summary
The Senate Health & Welfare Committee on April 4 heard competing views on H.238, a bill to phase out intentionally added PFAS from certain consumer products; witnesses debated timelines, exemptions and whether the state should use a product‑by‑product approach or a broader regulatory program.
Matt Chapman, director of Waste Management Prevention at the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, told the Senate Health & Welfare Committee that phasing out intentionally added PFAS from consumer products is necessary because the chemicals are costly and difficult to treat once they enter the environment.
“For the record, Matt Chapman, I’m the director of waste management prevention at the Department of Environmental Conservation,” Chapman said when he began testimony on H.238, explaining the department’s work under Act 131 and the agency’s preference for a broader regulatory framework even as the House adopted a product‑by‑product approach. Chapman emphasized that phasing PFAS from products is less costly than cleaning contaminated drinking water or wastewater systems after the fact.
Chapman and other witnesses discussed three product groups in the bill: dental floss, certain cleaning products in fluorinated containers, and…
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