Companies will now be prevented from starting or resuming the manufacture of over 300 PFAS compounds without a complete regulatory review and risk determination, based upon a new finalized rule announced by the U.S. EPA on January 8, 2024.

The finalized rule targets a class of 329 chemicals known as inactive PFAS. Prior to the finalized rule, according to the EPA, inactive PFAS chemicals may have been used without review in many industries, including as binding agents, surfactants, in the production of sealants and gaskets, and may also have been released into the environment.

In its announcement, EPA stated that the final rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TCSA) applies to all PFAS that are designated as “inactive” on the TSCA Inventory and which are not already subject to a SNUR. EPA has aligned the rule with reporting requirements for the Active-Inactive rule, which designated these “inactive” chemicals.

Merit Laboratories is a leading national PFAS environmental laboratory, analyzing drinking water, soil, wastewater, groundwater, and other sample matrices, including biosolids and sludge. Analytical methods performed by Merit for PFAS include drinking water by EPA 533, EPA 537.1, and EPA 537 rev. 1.1, soil and biosolids by ASTM D7968-17 with Isotopic Dilution, and wastewater, groundwater, and surface water by ASTM D7979-19 with Isotopic Dilution and development of the new EPA 1633 method.