Judges Focus on Deadline for EPA Rule in PFAS-From-Plastics Case

Judges focused on whether the EPA violated a chemicals statute’s rulemaking deadline as they heard oral arguments Friday in a case seeking to ban fluorine gas from being used on plastic containers.

Three US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit judges heard a case environmental health advocates brought appealing a district court’s dismissal of their claims that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The advocates alleged the agency failed to timely propose a regulation banning the process of fluorinating plastic containers because PFAS are inadvertently formed.

The EPA seems to be proceeding ...