WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Democrats in the U.S. Senate are attempting to link the subject of one of their pet projects to the COVID-19 pandemic, while looming is a general election that will have a great impact on the future of the liability-expanding measure they tried to force through last year and failed.
Dems like Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois signed on a June 26 letter to the Department of Health and Human Services requesting research on whether exposure to chemicals known as PFAS effects coronavirus patients differently. Those senators lost their PFAS fight last year but 2021 could be a different story if this year's election falls their way.
“Looks to me like just more 'never let a crisis go to waste,’” said Steve Milloy - a lawyer, founder of the website JunkScience.com and a member of President Trump's EPA transition team who thinks the PFAS scare has been overblown because of “lousy” research.
“There is no reason to think PFAS exposure has anything to do with COVID-19 outcomes. They are just making it up.”
The letter comes weeks after the Centers for Disease Control said a possible PFAS-coronavirus link is "an important question." It also comes days before a vote on a PFAS amendment in an infrastructure bill, according to E&E Daily. The report says the amendment from Democrat Elissa Slotkin of Michigan would stipulate that receipt of a grant to clean up a PFAS-contaminated area does not absolve the Department of Defense of its responsibility to clean up the area.
PFAS were found in products like non-stick cookware and firefighting foam and amass in the bloodstreams of those who are exposed to them. Their exact effects on humans are not known.
But Democrats have sought to classify them as hazardous substances under the federal Superfund law, a move that would open countless businesses to liability. Their quest failed last year when Senate Republicans refused to sign off on a military spending bill that would have categorized PFAS that way, despite lobbying efforts from private lawyers who could have benefitted.
The issue is coming up again in 2020 as Democrats hope to gain a majority in the Senate and see Joe Biden elected President, paving the way for PFAS legislation and action by a Democrat-controlled EPA.
The PFAS Action Act passed in January, though no action has been taken in the Senate. Even if Democrats take the Senate, if President Trump stays in office, he has threatened to veto it.
The Democrats’ letter (also signed by independent Bernie Sanders) claims PFAS exposure can weaken a body’s immune system, putting those people in danger of severe health problems from COVID-19 exposure. It wants to know if the National Institute of Health has plans to research a PFAS-coronavirus connection.
Existing research resulted from a medical monitoring settlement funded by DuPont in Ohio and West Virginia earlier this century. It draws a link between PFAS (which nearly every American has been exposed to) and diseases like kidney and testicular cancers, though many argue the science is incomplete.
Democrats are upset the EPA hasn’t formalized a maximum contaminant level yet. Activists and state regulators have found support in the House, which hosted lopsided hearings regarding PFAS last year.
States have passed their own regulations, too, which are far below the 70 ppt advisory. Some of those states have also hired private lawyers on contingency fees to pursue lawsuits against defendants like 3M and DuPont.
Lawsuits are consolidated in a multidistrict litigation proceeding in South Carolina federal court.
From Legal Newsline: Reach editor John O'Brien at john.obrien@therecordinc.com.