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Environment & Climate

EPA quietly revises website claim that toxic PFAS compounds were phased out

The Guardian reports the EPA changed website wording after a complaint, while Inhance, which denies measurable leaching, makes up to 200 million containers yearly.

Updated Oct 18, 2026 · 14:06 UTC1 reports

The short version

  • The EPA quietly revised a website claim that PFOA and PFOS had been phased out, after a complaint from the group Peer.[The Guardian]
  • Officials often repeated the phase-out claim, which critic Bennett says falsely implied PFOA is no longer made in the US.[The Guardian]
  • Inhance, which makes up to 200 million containers yearly, denies measurable PFOA leaching, and the reporting leaves that dispute unresolved.[The Guardian]

Key facts

  • The EPA's website now says quantities of PFOA may be produced, imported, and used, replacing a statement that its manufacture and import had been phased out.[The Guardian]
  • The change followed a complaint from Peer, which said the EPA was allowing PFOA to be produced in the US.[The Guardian]
  • In 2015 the EPA reached an agreement with eight PFAS producers to phase out PFOA and PFOS production, though it stopped short of a ban.[The Guardian]
  • The EPA has found that virtually no level of exposure to PFOA or PFOS in drinking water is safe.[The Guardian]
  • The International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies PFOA as carcinogenic to humans and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic.[The Guardian]
  • Inhance makes up to 200 million plastic containers annually that are used across the US economy.[The Guardian]
  • Inhance denies measurable PFOA leaching and calls any PFOA from its products an impurity.[The Guardian]

What remains uncertain

  • Whether PFOA leaches from Inhance containers at measurable levels is disputed; the reporting says PFOA has been found to leach at high levels, while Inhance denies measurable leaching.[The Guardian]
  • Bennett's claim that the EPA's wording was demonstrably false and has been admitted is one critic's characterization, not an agency statement.[The Guardian]
  • The reporting does not say whether the EPA will restrict Inhance's container production.[The Guardian]
  • All claims rest on reporting from a single outlet, The Guardian, and have not been independently confirmed.[The Guardian]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.