In Massachusetts environmental law, PFAS coming to the fore.

Byline: Kris Olson

Ask an environmental attorney what's on his mind these days, and he may reply with just four letters: P-F-A-S.

"Some observers have called PFAS a 'coming tsunami' in environmental law," Worcester attorney David K. McCay writes in an April 18 blog post.

There are nearly 5,000 types of perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, many of which are impermeable to grease, water and oil, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Since the 1940s, PFAS have been used in stain- and water-resistant fabrics and carpeting, cleaning products, paints and firefighting foams. The FDA reports that there have been "limited, authorized uses" of PFAS in cookware and food packaging and processing.

McCay, a partner at Mirick, O'Connell, DeMallie & Lougee, notes that the release of firefighting foam at training academies and airports, particularly military ones, has been one of the major conduits by which PFAS have entered the environment.

PFAS have been referred to as "forever chemicals" because they are resistant to being broken down either in the environment or in the human body.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, "some, but not all" studies have shown that an accumulation of certain PFAS in the body may affect growth, learning and behavior of infants and older children; lower a woman's chance of getting pregnant; interfere with the body's natural hormones; increase cholesterol levels; affect the immune system; and increase the risk of cancer.

On June 11, the FDA announced that the vast majority of the foods tested in a recent study were found to be free of PFAS. However, there are striking counterexamples, like the PFAS contamination found in the milk produced at a dairy farm in Arundel, Maine, which was traced to a decades-old common practice of spreading sludge from wastewater treatment plants on fields as a "soil enhancer."

McCay says PFAS differ from much of what environmental attorneys have to deal with, where the science is "pretty well understood," both in terms of the potential harms and the means of remediating the issue. As an emerging contaminant, PFAS present far more open questions, both in terms of toxicology and liability, he says.

As the law catches up with the potential hazard, litigation will naturally result, he adds.

Prompting McCay's April 18 blog post was the Department of Environmental Protection's announcement of proposed revisions to Massachusetts Contingency Plan regulations, which included a new...