Bloomberg Industry Group Investigations PFAS State Activity Tracker

WARNING: This tracker is no longer being updated and should not be considered up-to-date. The tracker may not reflect current laws or regulations. It is being maintained in its current state as a reference.

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Introduction

This repository contains the database that makes up the PFAS State Activity Tracker. The tracker contains legislative and regulatory actions on PFAS that are happening at the state level. Proposed, pending, and enacted measures are included.

The tracker is no longer being updated and should not be considered up-to-date.

A searchable version of the database along with a short snippet of the latest developments can be found on the Bloomberg Law website.

PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of man-made chemicals that are distinguished by their durability and water resiliency. They're often referred to as "forever chemicals" because of their inability to naturally break down.

How the Database was Constructed

This database was initially constructed by surveying existing PFAS state laws and regulatory actions. Where none were immediately apparent, state agencies were contacted for additional information. The tracker was previously primarily maintained by monitoring alerts set up on the Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Government platforms.

The increasing amount of states' activity on PFAS and the manual nature of updating the tracker means that inevitably omissions or errors may have resulted when the tracker was being maintained. Additionally, information may not have been immediately updated when new developments occurred.

Note on Database Structure

This dataset is organized such that each regulatory or legislative action is an individual observation, or row. Legislative actions that contain multiple versions of the same bill (such as a Senate version and a House version) are combined in a single entry. The bill that's listed first under the Notes field is where the URL will direct.

Legislative proposals are included in the tracker until they are no longer actively under consideration (usually due to the legislative session ending). Since many legislative sessions span two years, a bill may remain on the tracker more than a year after its introduction even if no action has been taken in some time.

Appropriations bills that include spending allocations for PFAS-related initiatives are not included on the tracker until they become law. This is due to the volume of appropriations bills that are introduced during legislative sessions, as well as the many iterations these bills undergo.

Data Description

PFAS State Activity Tracker.csv - A comma-separated values file of the PFAS State Activity Tracker.

Data Dictionary

Data Field	Description	Data Type
State	State	string
Rule Type	Type of measure being proposed or enacted: Binding, Court Order, Legislation, No action, Non-binding guidance, Proposed Action	string
Action Type	Focus of action being proposed or enacted: Environment, Environment and Health, Environment and Liability, Environment and Product, Health and Safety, Liability, Other, Product, Unknown	string
Description	Description of what action is being taken on PFAS	string
Status	Status of action: Pending, In effect	string
Effective Date	When the action takes effect (if applicable)	date
Link Text	Text to display for hyperlink (Note: Used for generating clickable links in PDFs and the interactive table)	string
URL	URL to more information on the action	string
Hyperlink	Hyperlink that combines the Link Text and URL into a clickable object (Note: This will not display in the CSV and will only appear as plain text)	string
Links	Text written in HTML that combines the Link Text and URL into syntax that opens the link in a new page (Note: This is for generating clickable hyperlinks in the searchable version of the tracker)	string
Notes	Additional information on the action (if applicable), such as bill number or when legislation was signed into law	string
Entry Last Updated	When the entry was last updated	date