EPA quietly backtracks on claims US has phased out toxic PFAS compounds

A quiet edit to a federal website has forced the US Environmental Protection Agency to concede that two of the most dangerous ‘forever chemicals’ are still being manufactured in the United States — years after the agency assured the public they had been eliminated.

The website rewrite

The change followed a complaint filed in October 2025 by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a non-profit representing public-sector workers, under the Information Quality Act — a law requiring data distributed by federal agencies to be complete and accurate. PEER argued that the EPA’s repeated claim that PFOA and PFOS, two of the most widely used forms of PFAS, were no longer produced in the United States was false.

In a response dated 18 September, Douglas M. Troutman, the EPA’s assistant administrator for chemical safety and pollution prevention, wrote: “In response to PEER’s request, EPA is updating its websites.” The agency removed the sentence “The manufacture and import of PFOA has also been phased out in United States” and replaced it with the concession that “Quantities of PFOA may be produced, imported, and used by companies…” The updated pages also acknowledge that PFOS remains in US production in some “limited, ongoing uses”.

PEER later took the agency to court over the claims, but the case was dismissed after a federal judge ruled the group lacked standing. The website correction is the clearest admission yet that the official story did not match manufacturing reality.

The company at the centre of the row

At the heart of the dispute is Inhance, a Houston-based chemical company that makes up to 200 million plastic containers a year for use across the US economy. PFOA has been found leaching at high levels from the company’s fluorinated containers into the products they hold — from pesticides to food items and industrial goods.

PEER says the toxic chemicals are present in the lining of millions of containers carrying an array of consumer, commercial and industrial products, and that the substances migrate into the contents. The EPA has nevertheless allowed production to continue rather than forcing a halt, and appears to have given up on legally pressuring the company.

Inhance disputes the danger. Its chief operating officer, Patricia van Ee, has said the company made adjustments to cut PFOA “impurities” by 90%, and that published peer-reviewed third-party risk assessments conclude estimated exposure “does not present an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment”. The company says it has shared its process data with the EPA throughout the agency’s review.

Why the original claim mattered

The false phase-out claim was not a mere website nicety. PEER argues the EPA used it as one reason to delay regulation of PFAS — if the chemicals were gone, the argument ran, there was less urgency to control them. Correcting the record therefore reopens questions the agency had treated as settled.

The gap between the claim and the reality traces back to 2015, when the EPA secured commitments from eight chemical manufacturers to phase out PFOA and PFOS production. But the phase-out was a set of voluntary agreements with specific producers, not an industry-wide legal ban — leaving companies outside the agreement free to keep manufacturing.

“This rare touch of candor by EPA is welcome, but it does not address the free flow of toxic PFAS saturating our food, water, and soil,” said Kyla Bennett, PEER’s science policy director. “Now that EPA has admitted that these two legacy PFAS are still manufactured in the US, it is past time to take effective enforcement action.”

What PFAS are — and why scientists are worried

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’, are man-made compounds that do not readily break down in the environment and accumulate in the human body over time. They have been associated with cancer and a range of other illnesses, which is why their continued production alarms public-health researchers.

The EPA itself has found that virtually no level of exposure to PFOA or PFOS in drinking water is safe. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies PFOA as carcinogenic to humans and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic — among the strongest warnings available for environmental chemicals.

The scientific case against the compounds was built partly through landmark litigation in West Virginia involving DuPont, where an epidemiological panel linked the substances to kidney and liver disease, heart complications and cancer. Fluorinated plastic containers add a further exposure route, because the chemicals can leach directly from packaging into the pesticides, food items and other products stored inside.

What happens next

The website correction changes the EPA’s public position, but not yet its enforcement posture. PEER is pressing the agency to move from candour to action — including against Inhance’s continued production — now that the phase-out claim has been formally withdrawn.

Whether the EPA will do so remains unclear. The agency has so far allowed Inhance to keep manufacturing, and the company maintains its processes are safe. For consumers, the episode is a reminder that ‘phased out’ on a government website does not always mean gone from the supply chain — and that millions of plastic containers may still be carrying traces of chemicals the public was told had disappeared.

FAQs

What exactly did the EPA change on its website?

It deleted the sentence ‘The manufacture and import of PFOA has also been phased out in United States’ and inserted language stating that ‘Quantities of PFOA may be produced, imported, and used by companies…’ The revised pages also describe PFOS as remaining in US production in some ‘limited, ongoing uses’ — a direct reversal of the previous all-clear.

What are PFOA and PFOS?

They are two of the most widely used and best-studied forms of PFAS, the ‘forever chemicals’ that resist breaking down in the environment and accumulate in people. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies PFOA as carcinogenic to humans and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic, and the EPA has found that virtually no level of either in drinking water is safe.

If these chemicals were phased out, how are they still being made?

The phase-out the EPA cited was never a legal ban. In 2015 the agency secured voluntary commitments from eight manufacturers to stop producing PFOA and PFOS, but companies outside that agreement — including Houston-based Inhance, which makes up to 200 million fluorinated plastic containers a year — were never covered. That loophole is what kept production going while the website claimed it had stopped.

What health risks are linked to PFAS?

PFAS have been associated with certain cancers, immune and thyroid effects, and other serious conditions; an epidemiological panel in the landmark DuPont litigation in West Virginia tied PFOA and PFOS to kidney and liver disease, heart complications and cancer. Because fluorinated containers can leach the chemicals into pesticides, food items and industrial products, exposure can come through packaging as well as water.

What happens next — will the EPA take enforcement action?

PEER is demanding enforcement now that the agency has admitted the chemicals are still manufactured domestically, but the EPA has not announced any action against Inhance. The company insists its processes are safe, citing a 90% reduction in PFOA impurities and peer-reviewed risk assessments. With PEER’s earlier lawsuit dismissed on standing grounds, the pressure is now political and regulatory rather than judicial.