Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a family of chemicals that have been manufactured and used by industries worldwide since the 1940s. PFAS can be found in food, commercial household products, workplace (e.g., electronics manufacturing), firefighting foams, drinking water (localized and associated with a specific nearby operation/facility) and living organisms (e.g., fish). Currently, there are no federal air quality regulations in place or proposed for these compounds. The United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) PFAS Action Plan, updated in February 2020, focused mostly on drinking water exposure and additional research. However, the USEPA has been providing states with assistance to better characterize and understand the environmental impacts of PFAS emitted to the air in order to develop sampling and measurement methods for PFAS in air, understand the efficacy of emission control technology and assess effectiveness of PFAS disposal methods. Due to the lack of regulatory action at the federal level, many states have taken action to control PFAS air emissions and to require companies to estimate PFAS air impacts. This paper provides an update to a paper presented at the 2021 Air and Waste Management Association’s annual meeting. If provides summary of recent actions that several state agencies have taken to address the releases of PFAS into the air. A brief summary of Federal and Congressional initiative is also provided. In addition, since some states have required add-on controls, this paper will review the various control strategies available.
.jpg)
