At issue is one company’s practice of fluorination, a process that coats the inner walls of plastic containers and barrels to make them more durable, which also inadvertently creates three of the riskiest PFAS as byproducts. Inhance, a Texas-based, plastics-focused company with 11 U.S. facilities, annually fluorinates approximately 200 million containers, which commonly hold pesticides, gas or cleaning products.
The two groups helming litigation and advocacy efforts — Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Center for Environmental Health — were the first to trace widespread PFAS contamination back to Inhance’s fluorination process back in 2020.
“We’re disappointed that the court gave EPA a free pass on meeting statutory deadlines intended to force action on immediate and serious threats to health,” said Bob Sussman, an attorney representing the two groups.