On September 29, 2021, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law a measure that bans the manufacture, sale, and use of firefighting foam containing PFAS. The law also sets requirements for disposal methods of PFAS-containing foams.
The vast majority of the ban kicked in on January 1, 2022 with two exceptions: (1) the ban is delayed until January 1, 2024 for “fixed foam fire suppression systems” that are designed to contain the foam they discharge, and (2) the ban is delayed until January 1, 2028 for the manufacture, sale, or use of foam by oil refineries that hold large tanks of flammable liquids. An attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council described the law to the Los Angeles Times as among the toughest in the country. Manufacturers of products impacted by the ban also must recall any such products sold after January 1, 2021. The deadline for the recall is March 1, 2022 for products subject to the 2022 ban and March 1, 2024 for products subject to the 2024 ban.
