Illinois lawmakers look to ban cancerous forever chemicals from household items

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — Forever chemicals also known as PFAS, have been in household items for decades, but only recently have they been connected to serious illnesses such as cancer.

They can enter the human body through skin, where they stay forever in the blood stream, liver or kidneys. Hence the name forever chemicals.

Illinois lawmakers have a new bill that would ban all use of forever chemicals in cookware, cosmetics such as makeup, dental floss, child products like pacifiers, underwear, menstrual products and food packaging.

State Sen. Julie Morrison (D-Highland Park) said this is this the right time to raise awareness and start restricting the chemicals widespread use.

"Before we even take action legislatively, watch what your child is interacting with," Morrison said. "Much better to be safe than sorry."

A full list of known items with forever chemicals can be found online at the Illinois EPA website.

These chemicals have been used so extensively because they helped separate water and oil from products, which comes in handy in products like a non-stick frying pan.

The bill has been sent to the assignment committee, where next week lawmakers could talk about it. Morrison says there's still lots of time to discuss and add modifications to the plan.

"I'm looking forward to getting to work with the stakeholders as people see the bill filed, read it, digest it and start to think about how this affects them," Morrison said.

Illinois isn't the first state to propose a forever chemicals ban on household items, with 18 states having some kind of regulation according to Source Intelligence.

At the federal level, they've been slow to pick up on forever chemicals, with only a ban grease proofing agents containing these chemicals by the FDA last year in February.

"A lot of times states have to lead the way on some of these things," Morrison said. "The federal government isn't quite as nimble as a state government will come in and say wow that's right, that's a great idea."

Illinois is one of those states with regulations in place with the use of forever chemicals in firefighter foam banned in the state.