John Gardella was recently interviewed by John O’Brien of news outlet Legal Newsline on the topic of PFAS (“As Maine Aims To Ban Carpets, Concerns Emerge With Pending PFAS Legislation“). Specifically, Mr. Gardella provided his opinions on recent legislation proposed in Maine that seeks to ban PFAS-containing carpets, as well as place significant reporting requirements on companies importing or using PFAS in products. The Maine legislation follows on the heels of related PFAS news out of Georgia, which has ongoing litigation pertaining to PFAS-containing carpets.

Excerpt from the article:

“I have been surprised by the states that have enacted or sought to enact bans on carpets that contain PFAS, only because there is very little in the way of scientific study, specifically relating to how people can be exposed to PFAS from carpets,” Gardella told Legal Newsline.

“The most natural and obvious mechanism of concern would be dermal exposure… but there have been no studies specifically looking at this issue and answering important questions such as: ‘how often would someone have to come into contact with a carpet for there to be a risk’; ‘is a brief transitory contact with a carpet enough dermal exposure for there to be PFAS absorption’; and ‘if the carpets contain one of the over 7,000 FPAS that haven’t been studied very much, is it scientifically justifiable at this point to ban the product without that foundational knowledge?”

CMBG3 Law is following judicial, legislative, administrative, and scientific developments relating to PFAS. More information about the services we can provide, including risk assessments, to ensure your business is ready for any intersection with these substances can be found on our PFAS Litigation page.

Our attorneys have been at the forefront of PFAS issues, including giving presentations as to the future waves of litigation stemming from PFAS issues. For more information, please contact any of our PFAS – Toxic Torts Team: John Gardella.