Read the Congressional sign-on letter
During his 2020 campaign, President Biden pledged to make PFAS (poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances) a priority, including a commitment in his administration’s environmental justice plan to tackle PFAS by “prioritizing substitutes through procurement.” The EPA’s recently released PFAS Strategic Roadmap included some important national commitments but lacked an upstream focus on pollution prevention.
Today, Safer Chemicals Healthy Families joined with 35 local, state, and national groups in sending a letter to the White House calling on the president to fulfill his campaign commitment. The groups called for a federal procurement mandate steering the federal government’s billions of dollars in annual purchasing toward PFAS-free products.
Every year, the federal government purchases billions of dollars in goods and services from the private sector, including products such as clothing, carpeting, floor treatments, curtains, upholstered furniture, cleaners, personal care products, food containers, and firefighting turnout gear that often contain PFAS. Many safer solutions already exist among these product categories, and a new federal directive would stimulate the market to produce even more.
Read our letter to the White House here.
Director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, Toxic-Free Future's federal policy program
Liz Hitchcock is director of Toxic-Free Future’s federal policy program. She leads advocacy efforts with Congress, EPA and other federal agencies.
