It’s time for Canada to take the win on PFAS regulation – Ecojustice

This was initially printed within the National Observer on July 24, 2025. 

Demands to manage the dangerous impacts of poisonous PFAS chemical compounds are rising. In recent polling, practically 9 in 10 Canadians from each area and political affiliation confirmed help for sturdy authorities motion to manage the chemical compounds.

PFAS (brief for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a category of greater than 14,000 artificial, extremely poisonous, and practically indestructible chemical compounds which can be proof against warmth, oil, stains, grease and water. Used in a variety of merchandise from cosmetics to firefighting foam, these impossible-to-avoid “forever chemicals” pollute and construct up in our our bodies and the surroundings over time, wreaking havoc on the well being of people and ecosystems.

In March 2025, the federal government issued a proposed order to list and regulate the class of PFAS as toxic, beneath the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA). This designation would unlock regulatory and threat administration devices that empower the federal authorities to curb the hurt attributable to these poisonous chemical compounds.

Now, we stand at a threshold — the federal government is only one step away from finalizing the itemizing order. And because the disaster continues to mount, it’s crucial to behave as rapidly as attainable.

PFAS are in all places

First found in 1934 by chemists at German conglomerate IG Farben, PFAS were introduced to the consumer market by 3M and DuPont starting in 1938, by way of merchandise like Freon in refrigeration, Teflon cookware, and Scotchgard furnishings protector. Thanks to their sturdiness and repellant properties, PFAS rapidly discovered use in different industrial and industrial purposes.

Today, these chemical compounds are ubiquitous in practically each business, broadly utilized in industrial processes as surfactants, lubricants and repellents, and in merchandise starting from cosmetics and hygiene merchandise to clothes, furnishings, packaging, pesticides and firefighting foam.

The actual properties that make these chemical compounds so valued in industrial and shopper purposes additionally make them extraordinarily poisonous. Because they’re practically indestructible, they will persist within the surroundings for 1000’s of years and are inconceivable to keep away from. PFAS air pollution is pervasive within the air, rain, species, ambiance and water throughout the Great Lakes basin, which supplies consuming water for 60 million folks. 

Forever chemical compounds wreak havoc on the human physique, however don’t impression everybody equally

Studies have proven that more than 99 per cent of people in Canada have PFAS in their blood. That quantity is particularly alarming provided that these chemical compounds are linked to a variety of antagonistic well being results, together with heart problems, cancers similar to thyroid and testicular most cancers, liver harm, immune system results, developmental impacts, fertility and low toddler beginning weight.

PFAS additionally raises problems with environmental justice. As with many well being and environmental harms, the impacts of those chemical compounds aren’t borne equally by everybody. Youth and northern First Nations bear higher harms and exposures. Further, firefighters face excessive charges of publicity to PFAS contained in firefighting foam and equipment meant to guard them. Over time, this has resulted in firefighters dying of PFAS-related cancers at excessive charges.

A disaster a long time within the making calls for motion now

The unlucky reality is that lots of the harms we’re seeing from PFAS immediately may have been simply averted if not for company greed.

Corporations were aware of the link between PFAS and dangerous well being impacts way back, however deliberately obscured this data from regulators and the general public. Internal paperwork obtained by way of litigation discovery, and now archived at UC San Francisco, present that DuPont and 3M knew that PFAS was “highly toxic when inhaled and moderately toxic when ingested” by 1970.

Their personal workers suffered the results. In 1980, each companies discovered PFAS within the blood of pregnant employees and their youngsters, and a confidential inside report at DuPont in 1981 reported beginning defects amongst pregnant workers.

The corporations behind PFAS ran the identical soiled playbook because the tobacco, pharmaceutical and fossil fuels industries. They intentionally distorted public discourse, suppressed unfavourable analysis, and funded beneficial analysis to affect science and regulation.

Canada’s alternative to guide

We strongly commend the federal government’s resolution to take a science- and class-based method, which can collectively classify PFAS as poisonous. A substance-by-substance method could be completely inadequate and ineffective as banned or restricted chemical compounds may merely get replaced by unrestricted chemical compounds. This would result in a poisonous treadmill of publicity to an infinite number of primarily the identical or comparable chemical compounds. 

Canada is prone to lagging behind if it fails to take PFAS regulation over the end line. Other jurisdictions have taken significant motion on PFAS. France adopted legislation to outright ban PFAS in some shopper merchandise in 2026, the European Union has a roadmap for phasing out PFAS as a category, and Minnesota — dwelling to 3M’s headquarters and a key Great Lakes companion — will phase out and eliminate all intentionally added PFAS by 2032.

This authorities has a chance to indicate Canadians it’s critical about defending our well being and surroundings from the harms of PFAS. People throughout all areas and political stripes are demanding motion. Listing PFAS as poisonous beneath CEPA is clear, straightforward, and apolitical.

All that’s left to do is for the Canadian authorities to take the win.