On Friday, a diverse coalition advocating for stronger health protections from the toxic and persistent flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE) sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for violating a federal law that requires EPA to take all practicable measures to limit exposure to some of the most dangerous chemicals in commerce. The Yurok Tribe, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Learning Disabilities Association of America, Consumer Federation of America, and the Center for Environmental Transformation are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to invalidate loopholes in EPA regulations that would expose infants and children, workers, indigenous cultural and subsistence practitioners, and communities across the country to DecaBDE for years to come and frustrate efforts to get the dangerous chemical out of consumer products and the environment. The coalition is represented by the non-profit environmental law firm Earthjustice.

Our organizations include community groups in areas affected by PFAS contamination, a national coalition of impacted communities, and local and national organizations advocating for strengthened protections against the risks posed by existing and new PFAS chemicals. The three premanufacture notices (“PMNs”) are merely the latest examples of new PFAS submitted for EPA approval without the studies and data required to evaluate their effects on human health and the environment and therefore without the information needed to support a determination that they are unlikely to pose an unreasonable risk.