EPA PFAS Strategic Roadmap and Webinars and GenX Toxicity Assessment

EPA has published its new PFAS Strategic Roadmap and Final Human Health Toxicity Assessment for GenX chemicals.

The PFAS Strategic Roadmap was developed by EPA’s PFAS Council and includes three guiding strategies to: increase investments in research, leverage authorities to take action now to restrict PFAS chemicals from being released into the environment, and accelerate the cleanup of PFAS contamination. For drinking water regulations, “EPA expects to issue a proposed regulation in Fall 2022 (before the Agency’s statutory deadline of March 2023). The Agency anticipates issuing a final regulation in Fall 2023 after considering public comments on the proposal.” In addition to drinking water, the Roadmap includes timelines for action on: designating PFAS as a hazardous substance under CERCLA; developing Effluent Limitation Guidelines (ELGs) under the Clean Water Act for nine industrial categories; reviewing previous Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) actions to address insufficient PFAS protections; and more. The Roadmap was also announced along with a new national testing strategy that will require manufacturers to provide toxicity data and information on categories of PFAS chemicals. EPA will hold two national webinars about the Roadmap to engage stakeholders in the next few weeks. Register for the webinars on October 26 and November 2 using the hyperlinked dates.

EPA’s Final Toxicity Assessment for GenX, or “hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) dimer acid and its ammonium salt,” focuses solely on the potential human health effects associated with oral exposure. It provides hazard identification, dose-response information, and derives oral reference doses (RfDs) for chronic and subchronic exposures. EPA will use this information to develop a national drinking water health advisory for GenX, to be published in Spring 2022. EPA plans to issue a health advisory for PFBS at the same time, that will be based on the Final PFBS Toxicity Assessment published in April 2021.

For more information about all of EPA’s PFAS actions go to: www.epa.gov/pfas.