Input Stories

NAM to New Mexico: Keep PFAS Exemptions

By NAM NewsroomSeptember 23, 2026

The New Mexico Environment Department should advise the state legislature to retain all existing exemptions in the Per- and Poly-Fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Protection Act, the NAM said this week.

What’s going on: “Manufacturers across integrated supply chains support responsible, science-based regulation to protect human health and the environment in relation to PFAS, an extremely wide-ranging family of thousands of chemistries, which are in many instances irreplaceable inputs to manufacturing processes and products,” the NAM told the NMED in response to a call for public comment on review of the Act, which regulates PFAS in consumer products.

  • Early this year, the New Mexico Legislature passed House Joint Memorial 3, a resolution directing the state’s environmental agencies to study implementation of the Act and evaluate whether certain product exemptions—such as those for fluoropolymers, plastic resins used widely in manufacturing—should be maintained or changed.

Why it’s important: “The Act significantly affects manufacturers throughout the supply chain, including companies that produce PFAS-containing materials and rely on those materials in their operations, especially where there are no known or suitable substitutes currently available for such materials,” the NAM continued, adding that many manufacturers thus rely on the Act’s exemptions.

  • The consequences of removing or changing those exemptions “include potential disruption of access to transportation, medical technologies, critical equipment and other products that rely on PFAS-containing materials, as well as significant economic and supply chain impacts where suitable alternatives are not reasonably available.”

What should be done: The NMED should urge the legislature to keep all current exemptions in the Act, the NAM said, including:

  • The one for products containing fluoropolymers, which “provide a combination of chemical and corrosion resistance, thermal stability, electrical insulation, durability and low friction that support product safety, reliability and performance”; and
  • Exemptions for products that serve essential public, industrial and infrastructure functions.

The last word: Retaining the exemptions and “clarifying the Act’s consumer-product scope … would continue to protect New Mexico’s public health and environment while promoting regulatory certainty,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Policy Chris Phalen and NAM Director of Chemicals, Materials and Sustainability Policy Reagan Giesenschlag.

Related: Earlier this month, in a win for the NAM and manufacturers, a federal judge blocked New Mexico’s sweeping labeling mandate for products made with PFAS from taking effect. The judge ruled that the NAM and fellow trade association plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits of the claim that the regulation violates the First Amendment’s prohibition against compelled speech.