Environmental advocates like the Conservation Law Foundation and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility are urging Maine to go even further, calling on the Board of Pesticides Control to conduct independent PFAS tests on all registered pesticides rather than relying on manufacturer affidavits.
In its own testing, PEER scientists have found evidence of PFAS in pesticides that cannot be traced back to active ingredients listed on the government-mandated label, the container, or the fluorinated sealant — a finding it believes proves that growers are secretly adding PFAS to their products.
PFAS testing is expensive and takes a long time to do because few labs have the sophisticated equipment needed to test for the small amounts that could pose a threat to human health. The University of Maine is building an in-house PFAS lab to conduct research and ease the testing backlog facing state agencies.
