The Protection Division is following restrictions on shopping for merchandise for presidency use that comprise a household of hazardous chemical compounds, however objects containing the substances — collectively often called PFAS — should be accessible at army exchanges, based on a authorities watchdog.
A evaluation by the Authorities Accountability Workplace discovered that the division had “taken some steps” to implement the ban required by legislation on shopping for merchandise containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. However the DoD has not adopted by way of on preserving merchandise containing PFAS off army trade cabinets, based on the printed replace Wednesday.
That shortcoming may doubtlessly expose customers.
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The DoD developed new steering on the legislation to contracting officers and customers of presidency buy playing cards. However based on the GAO, the DoD ought to take steps to implement the ban on the exchanges.
“DoD has not up to date its sustainable procurement steering to mirror statutory prohibitions,” GAO officers wrote within the report titled Persistent Chemical compounds: Actions Wanted to Enhance DoD’s Capacity to Stop the Procurement of Objects Containing PFAS. “Because of this, DoD is vulnerable to persevering with to acquire objects that comprise sure statutorily prohibited PFAS.”
A artifical group of gear, PFAS chemical compounds are utilized in industrial merchandise equivalent to lubricants and hydraulic fluids, non-stick cookware, meals wrappers, cosmetics and stain repellents.
In addition they are a key ingredient within the firefighting foam used to fight ship and plane fires and sometimes are dubbed “ceaselessly chemical compounds,” as a result of they don’t break down into innocent elements and cannot be destroyed.
The compounds have been linked to infertility, ulcerative colitis and thyroid illness, and should contribute to testicular and kidney most cancers.
The GAO discovered that the DoD has applied insurance policies on shopping for merchandise containing PFAS within the authorities procurement course of and buy playing cards and agrees that the legislation applies to army exchanges. However the Pentagon has not discovered the best way to implement the legislation within the exchanges.
DoD officers instructed the federal investigators it’s unlikely that army exchanges would promote upholstered furnishings and space rugs that comprise PFAS, since lots of the producers within the U.S. have moved away from utilizing the chemical compounds.
Nonetheless, the exchanges do purchase and resell imported items, which may comprise PFAS.
And the exchanges carry non-stick cookware or utensils, which the Environmental Safety Company doesn’t require to be labeled as containing PFAS.
The GAO made two suggestions to the DoD: Develop a plan to implement the legislation at army exchanges; and be certain that all its insurance policies adjust to the legislation and govt orders on limiting purchases of merchandise containing PFAS.
DoD officers concurred with the suggestions and stated they might talk with trade officers inside 30 days in regards to the necessities. They usually added that they might “prioritize substitutes for PFAS.”
On a separate be aware, GAO officers examined the DoD’s progress on guaranteeing that packaging for Meals, Able to Eat, didn’t comprise PFAS — a requirement that went into impact Oct. 1.
Protection Logistics Company officers requested the distributors to verify subcontractors that assemble MREs weren’t utilizing meals wrapping that contained PFAS and didn’t detect any “risky” PFAS within the samples, which means there have been no detectable ranges of chemical compounds within the air in and across the packaging.
However they did discover non-volatile PFAS in all three of the samples.
The officers surmised that the detected chemical compounds most likely got here from contamination through the manufacturing course of. They stated their subsequent step can be to kind out how the contamination happens.
– Patricia Kime may be reached at Patricia.Kime@Army.com. Comply with her on Twitter @patriciakime.
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