By The Defender Staff
Maine Law to Mandate Insurance Coverage for PFAS Blood Tests Starting Next Year
A new law taking effect in early 2027 will have a big impact on people whose blood has been contaminated by forever chemicals. The bill, signed into law early this year, requires insurance companies operating in Maine to cover medically-necessary blood tests for PFAS chemicals under all health plans starting next year. The goal is to help patients and doctors better understand exposure and protect health over time.
Dr. Rachel Criswell treats many patients who might have higher amounts of PFAS in their blood. “People with firefighting experience, military veterans, factory workers who use PFAS, and carpet cleaners,” Criswell said. She is a family doctor and environmental researcher at Redington-Fairview Hospital in Skowhegan. She uses guidelines from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which recommend blood tests for people exposed to PFAS to monitor for potential health effects.
These chemicals have been linked to issues like high cholesterol, thyroid disease, developmental delays, and some organ cancers. If results show high PFAS levels, doctors recommend more screenings for adults and children. The test costs between $300 and $600, which can be difficult for some patients to afford.
Thousands Allowed Back Home as Threat of California Chemical Blast Eases
Officials lifted evacuation orders on Monday night for more than half of the 40,000 Southern California residents living near an unstable chemical tank that they had feared would explode. Emergency personnel said they had averted the worst-case scenario of a major detonation, after struggling over Memorial Day weekend to contain the unstable industrial tank, filled with a toxic substance, in Garden Grove, Calif. But, officials stressed, the risk of a smaller blast or spill remained and they did not rescind the entire evacuation order.
Some 16,000 people who live closest to the site were still displaced as the Orange County Fire Authority’s standoff with the 22-year-old tank neared the end of its fifth day.
“It’s not over yet,” TJ McGovern, the fire authority’s interim chief, said at a news conference. “We still have work to do.”
Connecticut Receives $37 Million to Remove Lead, PFAS From Drinking Water
Connecticut municipalities have received a boost in battling two health concerns — lead and PFAS in drinking water — as a result of a $37 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
“These funding announcements will help communities address two of the most important environmental and human health challenges we face today–lead and PFAS,” said EPA New England Administrator, Mark Sanborn. “With this funding allocated by Congress, EPA is working together with our state and local partners to help accelerate practical and cost-effective solutions that affect human health and improve water quality for today’s families and future generations.”
The Emerging Contaminants in Small or Disadvantaged Communities (EC-SDC) grant is the first of two grants Connecuticut received to combat water contamination. The grant allocated the state $9.5 million to address the accumulation of PFAS in drinking water in lower income and urban areas with the least access to clean drinking water.
Primally Pure Urges Consumers and FDA to Rethink Sunscreen Ingredients
Primally Pure, the non-toxic skincare brand born on a regenerative farm, is sparking a long-overdue conversation about sunscreen. This summer, the brand is launching “Trust the Sun. Question Your Sunscreen.,” a campaign calling for updated ingredient safety standards, independent research, and the kind of ingredient transparency consumers deserve.
The initiative poses important questions about common sunscreen ingredients: Why are sunscreen ingredient safety standards stuck in the last century? Why are some of the chemicals banned from oceans and reefs still allowed on our skin? Why are only two of 16 sunscreen ingredients recognized as safe and effective?
“Consumers are paying attention now,” said Bethany McDaniel, founder of Primally Pure. “They’re reading labels, asking questions and looking beyond marketing claims. They deserve transparency. They deserve simplicity. They deserve ingredients they can actually trust. This campaign is our invitation to raise the bar for our industry and for regulators.”
Peaches, Pears and PFAS: California Lawmakers May Limit ‘Forever’ Pesticides in Foods
Amid growing awareness that so-called forever chemicals, or PFAS, can linger in landscapes and waterways for centuries, federal and state regulators have repeatedly insisted they’re working aggressively to protect us all from the cancer-linked poisons.
They are not.
Even as regulators and lawmakers tout their baby steps to limit forever chemicals in U.S. drinking water, they’re allowing a dramatic increase in the use of pesticides containing the chemicals across millions of acres of industrial agriculture. That often ends up in waterways and drinking water supplies, including in California.
PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of synthetic chemicals used since the 1950s to make consumer products resistant to water, grease and heat. Studies have linked PFAS to cancer, reproductive harm, endocrine disruption and other health effects.
An alarming 14% of all conventional pesticide active ingredients are now PFAS, according to a peer-reviewed study I co-authored with scientists from the Environmental Working Group and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. And it’s getting worse: The dangerous substances make up 30% of pesticide active ingredients approved just in the last 10 years.
Community Groups Sue EPA to Tighten Its Incinerator Rules
Environmental groups led by Earthjustice and the Environmental Integrity Project are again taking the U.S. EPA to court over its air emissions rules for large municipal solid waste combustors. The petition for review seeks to tighten limits for a range of pollutants, and it comes after the agency finalized a more lenient version of the regulation in March.
More than 50 incinerators nationwide are subject to the regulation, which seeks to tamp down on particulate matter, lead, nitrogen oxide and other air pollutants based on the best available emissions control technology. The final standards reduce the amount of regulated pollutants entering the atmosphere by 3,269 tons per year, according to EPA calculations. But that’s weaker than a proposal released by the agency in 2024, which would have reduced pollutants by roughly 14,000 tons per year, again per EPA’s own calculations.
Environmental groups have spent four years seeking to compel the EPA to update the rules, which it should have updated back in 2011 in accordance with Clean Air Act requirements. In their challenge, filed on May 11, the groups argue the agency is ignoring what modern pollution controls can achieve.
The post Maine Law to Mandate Insurance Coverage for PFAS Blood Tests Starting Next Year + More appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.
IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More
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