A Legal Rulemaking Petition (citizen petition) has been lodged with EPA, seeking “cancellation and suspension of several existing registrations of pesticide ingredients that are PFAS chemicals and requiring rulemaking regarding PFAS chemical assessment and PFAS in pesticide containers.” The petition was submitted on July 22, 2024, by the Center for Food Safety on behalf of itself, an individual described as a “chemical policy expert,” and eleven environmental and organic farming interest organizations. 

Petitioners allege that the EPA has violated its duty under FIFRA to ensure no “unreasonable adverse effects on the environment,” by the agency’s continued registering of active pesticide ingredients that qualify as PFAS, maintaining registrations of other PFAS active and inert ingredients, and allowing the use of fluorinated HDPE and polypropylene storage containers that leach PFAS into pesticides. The petition would require that EPA utilize a controversial definition of PFAS that includes any fluorinated organic chemical that contains “at least one fully fluorinated carbon atom.” 

In addition to seeking the cancellation/suspension of registrations and rulemaking, petitioners seek alternative relief including (1) clarification of FIFRA regulations to explicitly require EPA to consider PFAS chemicals’ impacts on human health and the environment, (2) requiring registrants to submit data on PFAS ingredient persistence in the environment, along with data specific to the environmental fate, bioaccumulation, and toxicity of PFAS chemicals, and (3) creation of a “PFAS in Pesticides” guidance document. The petition can be found here.