Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2026

HVACR NewsMagazine September 2026

State National Chapter News

Maine became the first state to enact an outright ban of PFAS from being intentionally added to products unless the use of PFAS is specifically designated as currently unavoidable. While we could spend the rest of this article talking about the ubiquitous presence of PFAS, let’s get down to how it affects the HVACR industry. According to Cooling Post, Europe proposes banning the use of refrigerants that contain PFAS under the European REACH regulations. The ban includes but may not be limited to R125, R134a, R143a and R1234yf, and R123eE. Since R454B contains R1234yf, it would also be included. R32 and R23 are not included but R23 will be phased out due to its GWP of 18,400. PLASE NOTE and this is important. There is no present ban in the United States for refrigerants because they may contain PFAS. However, there is another concern, many commercial liability carriers are specifically excluding coverage for claims that may arrive due to PFAS. We have already seen some of our folks get a copy of that exclusion. A copy of the exclusion follows this article. So, what are we going to do? If our general liability policy does not cover us if there is a claim for PFA medical related problems, how are you to protect yourself from huge lawsuits. I say huge because you know that once the word gets around, folks will stand in line to be added as a defendant to a lawsuit. Regretfully, we

What’s The Deal with PFAS

And Some Refrigerants You may have heard the rumble about PFAS in many products that have frequent use. Woodard & Curran gives examples; Lipitor, Flonase, Prozac, and Celebrex—all commonly used pharmaceuticals. According to PFASfree, “PFAS are used extensively in cookware.” “They are linked to multiple health issues including ; cancers, reduced fertility, liver disease, reduced vaccine efficacy and hormone imbalance.” Please Note: Not all non-stick cookware has PFAS. The US Government Accountability Office says this, “A group of synthetic chemicals call per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances— PFAS, for short-are used in a wide range of consumer, manufacturing, and fire safety products. But these chemicals contaminate the environment and some are linked to health problems in people.”… “this group of chemicals is large, diverse, hard to study, and difficult to fully remove from the environment.”