Report: Despite Growing Contamination Crisis, PFAS Chemical Use in U.S. Swells

Between 2012 and 2016, at least 30 new fluorinated chemicals, commonly called PFAS, were produced in significant volumes, according to Environmental Protection Agency data analyzed by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER. PEER reviewed records from EPA’s Chemical Data Reporting Database and found that there are now 118 PFAS chemicals produced in volumes in excess of 25,000 pounds per year. That’s an increase of more than 55 percent since 2002, a year after the agency was alerted to severe PFAS contamination of drinking water in West Virginia and Ohio. In all, the EPA says that 602 different PFAS chemicals were in active commercial use between 2006 and 2016.