State lawmakers across the country want to tackle the growing problem. Several states have passed landmark laws in recent years, and now dozens of legislatures are considering hundreds of bills to crack down on using certain compounds.
Toxic chemicals, such as PFAS, are found in an increasing number of water sources and can be found in nearly every American’s bloodstream. States across the nation want to limit the use of these compounds to reduce health risks.
The patchwork of laws and lawsuits remains uneven, and advocates say Americans need federal action to hold multinational companies accountable for past contamination, clean the waterways and systems now infected and impose sweeping bans on putting PFAS in new products.