Health commissioner, attorney general endorse stricter PFAS limits in H238, urge technical fixes

Vermont Department of Health Commissioner Mark Levine and Attorney General Charity Clark told the Senate Health and Welfare Committee on April 1 that proposed restrictions in bill H238 to expand limits on PFAS in consumer products would strengthen public health protections but need technical fixes on exemptions and enforcement.

The testimony centered on the health harms associated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and on suggested statutory changes in H238 (and an associated H91 discussed briefly) to clarify when PFAS are "intentionally added," how water-related exemptions should work, and how the Attorney General’s office would implement a carve-out for “currently unavoidable uses.”

Levine, who identified himself as Mark Levine, Commissioner of Health, summarized decades of scientific evidence tying PFAS exposures to health outcomes. He said the clearest associations include increases in cholesterol levels and effects on immune response to vaccines, pregnancy-associated problems (including elevated blood pressure and preeclampsia), developmental impacts such as changes in birth weight, and cancers with the strongest links to kidney and testicular cancers. "This has been accumulated scientific evidence over many decades," Levine said. He noted PFAS are persistent in the environment and in people’s bodies, and that preventing PFAS from entering products is the most effective way to reduce…