Safer Choice-certified products are free of PFAS and other hazardous chemicals
Toxic-Free Future applauds provision
WASHINGTON, DC – The FY 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed by the Senate today (85-14) includes a provision directing the Department of Defense (DoD) to purchase cleaning products that have been certified by the Safer Choice program. EPA’s Safer Choice program certifies that products are free of certain hazardous chemicals such as PFAS and instead use safer chemical ingredients.
Section 856 of the bill says, “The Secretary of Defense shall procure, to the maximum extent practicable, only those cleaning products that are identified—(1) under the Safer Choice program; or (2) by an independent third-party organization that provides certifications in a manner consistent with the Safer Choice program.”
In response to the news, Toxic-Free Future had the following statement:
“Purchasing products certified by the Safer Choice program will help protect service members, their families, and civilian employees at the more than 2.3 billion square feet of building space that DoD manages,” said Liz Hitchcock, Director of Safer Chemicals Healthy Families, the federal policy program of Toxic-Free Future. “The Senate has taken an important step forward in creating safer working and living environments for the people serving on military installations. We applaud Representatives Slotkin and Mace and Senator Shaheen for their work on this provision.”
EPA’s Safer Choice program has proven successful in helping purchasers, retailers, product formulators, and ingredient manufacturers to move toward safer solutions.
Almost all of the Safer Choice-certified products are manufactured by U.S.-based companies – either headquartered in the U.S. or with a manufacturing site in the U.S.
In recent years, Congress has made protecting service members from toxic chemicals a priority in the NDAA and other legislation, including a ban on the use of PFAS in food packaging for military meals and a prohibition on the use of fluorinated aqueous film-forming foam in the 2020 NDAA, and restrictions on the purchase of firefighting gear that contains PFAS in the 2023 NDAA.
TOXIC-FREE FUTURE
Toxic-Free Future is a national leader in environmental health research and advocacy. Through the power of science, education, and activism, Toxic-Free Future drives strong laws and corporate responsibility that protects the health of all people and the planet. www.toxicfreefuture.org
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