EPA orders Inhance to stop its HDPE barrier coatings, citing PFAS concerns

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered packaging barrier maker Inhance Technologies LLC to stop using its fluorination coating process on plastic containers, saying that it produces three "highly toxic" PFAS chemicals that can contaminate drinking water.

Houston-based Inhance, however, called the Dec. 1 EPA decision a "significant overreach" and said the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances produced from its fluorination coating of high density polyethylene bottles are unintended by-products and are not a threat to human health or the environment.

But EPA said that the persistence and toxicity of the so-called "forever chemicals" at minute levels means that Inhance needs to stop its coating manufacturing as long as it produces any of the three PFAS chemicals: perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorononanoic acid and perfluorodecanoic acid.

"PFAS should not be in plastic containers people use every day, period," said Michal Freedhoff, EPA's assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, in a statement.

The EPA order comes after the federal government sued Inhance in 2022 alleging its coating process, which is used on containers for household consumer goods, pesticides, fuels, automotive and industrial products, is a risk.

That lawsuit, in turn, came after several groups, including the Center for Environmental Health and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, gave formal notice to EPA that they planned to file a private lawsuit seeking EPA action under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

In its new order, EPA said the three chemicals — PFOA, PFNA and PFDA — are "highly toxic and present unreasonable risks that cannot be prevented other than through prohibition of manufacture."

It said Inhance's coating technology also produces six other PFAS chemicals that also "may present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment."

It said the company's manufacturing cannot restart until it can add the coating without producing those three PFAS chemicals.

"Inhance's current fluorination process for plastics produces all nine of the PFAS chemicals subject to these orders simultaneously, including PFOA, PFNA, and PFDA," EPA said. "Thus, the production of the other six PFAS could not restart so long as the fluorination process continues to produce PFOA, PFNA and PFDA."

EPA's orders take effect Feb. 28. The agency said there are alternatives to the fluorination technology that will protect packaging.

Inhance said in a statement that it was reviewing the orders and studying legal options to "protect its customers and employees and to ensure the continued operation of its business."

It said the orders direct the company to "cease fluorination" of HDPE containers.

"EPA's action represents a significant overreach, which will significantly and negatively affect many lawful industries involved in the fluorination of plastics and plastic containers, and many thousands of downstream supply chain businesses," Inhance said.

"Inhance Technologies does not use any PFAS in its production processes and any PFAS, if present, are unintended impurities that serve no commercial purpose," the company said. "Further, quantitative risk assessments carried out by third-party experts show that Inhance Technologies' barrier technology does not present risk to the environment or human health."

It said EPA had previously labeled its assessments "robust" and it had been working on process modifications over the last two years that have reduced the PFAS chemicals by 90 percent in its packaging and are "achieving non-detect levels in almost all of the plastic packaging articles treated."

EPA said the company has historically fluorinated up to 200 million containers a year — "more containers than there are households in America" — but the company said that amounts to 0.2 percent of the 15 billion pounds of PE packaging produced annually in the U.S.

The company argued its coating technology has benefits, including preventing millions of pounds of other chemicals from permeating packaging and getting into the environment each year.

"We will take all actions possible to ensure the continuation of this safe and environmentally beneficial technology, including all remedies of the law," Inhance said.

But EPA said PFAS chemicals have been shown to be dangerous at very low levels, are present in the blood of most U.S. residents tested and can take more than a decade to leave the human body.

The agency has proposed a maximum contaminant level of 4 parts per trillion for PFOA in drinking water and said in its statement "there is no level of PFOA in drinking water that is without risk of adverse health effects."

It said people can be exposed to PFAS through drinking water, from groundwater contamination and from eating fish from waters tainted by PFAS.

"Long-chain PFAS chemicals build up in our bodies and the environment over time," EPA said. "Even small amounts can significantly contribute to people's long-term exposure and health risk."

In its statement, EPA pointed to PFOA contamination detected in 2019 in drinking water in Easton, Mass., that was later traced back to state officials using a mosquitocide that contaminated a local waterway.

It said EPA scientists determined PFAS in the mosquitocide came from HDPE pesticide containers that had been fluorinated by Inhance.

The agency in 2021 said PFAS can migrate into liquids like pesticides and in March 2022 issued a general letter to the HDPE packaging and coating industry that it found evidence PFAS chemicals can leak from fluorinated polyolefin containers.

EPA issued a notice of violation to Inhance in March 2022 accusing the company of failing to notify the agency of the PFAS in its manufacturing processes, under rules the agency finalized in 2020.

But the company has said it has followed all laws and regulations and pointed to statements from Massachusetts state officials that levels of PFAS from fluorinated HDPE pesticide containers wouldn't be measurable.