{"id":2290,"date":"2026-07-29T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/?p=2290"},"modified":"2026-07-28T16:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T21:41:09","slug":"forever-chemicals-are-uninsurable-heres-what-that-means-for-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/2026\/07\/29\/forever-chemicals-are-uninsurable-heres-what-that-means-for-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Forever Chemicals\u00a0Are Uninsurable. Here&#8217;s What That Means for Business.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This blog was authored by:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/roya-alkafaji\" id=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/roya-alkafaji\">Roya Alkafaji<\/a>, Manager, Healthy Communities, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/abhinand-krishnashankar\" id=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/people\/abhinand-krishnashankar\">Abhinand Krishnashankar<\/a>, Manager, Economics and Policy.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/\/GettyImages-89279834-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"662\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/\/GettyImages-89279834-1024x662.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2291\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/GettyImages-89279834-1024x662.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/GettyImages-89279834-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/GettyImages-89279834-768x496.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/GettyImages-89279834-1536x993.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/GettyImages-89279834-2048x1324.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Photo credit: iStock zoomstudio <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Every year, new lawsuits reveal the shocking scale of PFAS contamination.&nbsp;&nbsp;These&nbsp;common&nbsp;and long-lasting&nbsp;synthetic&nbsp;\u201cforever\u201d&nbsp;chemicals have been quietly entering our water systems, soil, and bodies long before we had the tools to detect them. Now, as the&nbsp;increasing burden&nbsp;of the&nbsp;liability&nbsp;of PFAS contamination&nbsp;becomes clear, the institutions designed to absorb that risk, insurance companies, are walking away. The insurance industry is&nbsp;unable to price&nbsp;and therefore insure against&nbsp;a pollutant whose&nbsp;damage is&nbsp;vast, delayed, and still unfolding.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This retreat exposes a market failure compounding on itself: without strong federal&nbsp;safeguards&nbsp;like&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edf.org\/tsca\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Toxic Substances Control Act<\/a>&nbsp;(TSCA),&nbsp;the&nbsp;primary&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;chemical&nbsp;safety law&nbsp;current under threat in Congress,&nbsp;to curb PFAS at the source, production will continue unchecked, contamination will deepen, and communities and industries alike will be left with a bill that no one is willing to underwrite.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Litigation is turning hidden risk into real, escalating costs&nbsp;<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In the United States, since 1999,&nbsp;over&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/assets.milliman.com\/downloads\/gated-files\/11-6-23_PFAS_Forever-Chemical-Risk-is-Now.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">9,800 lawsuits have been filed against 357 companies<\/a>&nbsp;alleging harm from exposure to forever chemicals,&nbsp;resulting in&nbsp;nearly $16 billion&nbsp;in settlements across&nbsp;industries, though the issue extends globally.&nbsp;Each settlement&nbsp;creates a new benchmark, raising the&nbsp;floor for the expected future liability.&nbsp;Just this month,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.plasticsnews.com\/public-policy\/pn-chemours-landmark-pfas-settlement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Chemours agreed<\/a>&nbsp;to spend more than $450 million in the first comprehensive federal enforcement settlement with a major&nbsp;PFAS manufacturer.&nbsp;For insurers&nbsp;doing&nbsp;the math,&nbsp;the numbers&nbsp;show&nbsp;that&nbsp;the&nbsp;magnitude&nbsp;of risk associated with PFAS cannot be&nbsp;insured away.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To understand why,&nbsp;we&nbsp;need to break down the PFAS&nbsp;problem.&nbsp;PFAS&nbsp;pose&nbsp;a major risk to public health:&nbsp;some common forms of PFAS harm the immune system&nbsp;and the&nbsp;reproductive&nbsp;system and&nbsp;increase the risk of certain cancers.\u202fA&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/study-links-pfas-contamination-of-drinking-water-to-a-range-of-rare-cancers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent study<\/a>&nbsp;found PFAS exposure in drinking water contributes to more than 6,800 cancer cases annually.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pollution&nbsp;caused by these chemicals&nbsp;is&nbsp;also&nbsp;a market failure \u2014 a cost imposed on society that&nbsp;never&nbsp;shows up on a company&#8217;s balance sheet.&nbsp;The&nbsp;scope of&nbsp;the current&nbsp;PFAS&nbsp;pollution&nbsp;was not&nbsp;identified&nbsp;until&nbsp;decades after&nbsp;they began to be produced and used,&nbsp;which makes&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/assets.milliman.com\/downloads\/gated-files\/11-6-23_PFAS_Forever-Chemical-Risk-is-Now.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pricing&nbsp;the risk&nbsp;a challenge<\/a>.&nbsp;The lawsuits being filed today largely reflect pollution from ten or more years ago. Because&nbsp;these chemicals take&nbsp;hundreds to thousands of years to break down in the environment,&nbsp;they have&nbsp;earned&nbsp;the nickname&nbsp;\u201cforever chemicals\u201d. By the time the severity of the pollution was recognized,&nbsp;they were already showing up&nbsp;nearly everywhere.&nbsp;And as long as we keep producing and using them, the risks will only increase.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>\u201cThe new asbestos\u201d:&nbsp;Insurance markets are breaking down under PFAS risk<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The insurance industry&#8217;s retreat from PFAS is&nbsp;a coordinated effort that is&nbsp;accelerating. Last year, the Insurance Services Office \u2014 which sets standardized policy language across the industry \u2014 formally endorsed broad PFAS exclusions, making coverage denial effectively standard practice. PFAS has been labeled the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/full\/10.1080\/10406026.2024.2394563\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;new asbestos,&#8221;<\/a>&nbsp;referencing how asbestos claims alone drove&nbsp;nearly&nbsp;$100 billion&nbsp;in payouts and made dozens of firms bankrupt.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response, an emerging reinsurance market has stepped in,&nbsp;insuring&nbsp;the insurers who are no longer willing to cover PFAS exposure. But this is a stopgap&nbsp;measure, not a solution. When the entire insurance industry walks away, risk&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;just land on companies directly holding PFAS liability. Instead,&nbsp;it spreads. Insurance works by pooling risk across firms, meaning PFAS-related losses drive up premiums for everyone, even companies that have never touched the chemicals. The only way to bring those costs down is for more companies to exit PFAS&nbsp;use&nbsp;altogether, which is exactly what strong regulation makes possible.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Weakening&nbsp;the Toxic Substances Control Act&nbsp;multiplies these risks<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Settlements like&nbsp;the Chemours one&nbsp;\u2014 and&nbsp;previous&nbsp;actions like the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.njoag.gov\/ag-platkin-dep-commissioner-latourette-landmark-settlement-with-dupont-valued-at-over-2-billion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">DuPont vs NJ DEP case<\/a>&nbsp;\u2014 signal that regulators are serious about making polluters pay. However,&nbsp;they&nbsp;don&#8217;t&nbsp;require companies to stop using or releasing PFAS. Financial liability is a necessary enabler of action, but it is not a mandate for change.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where&nbsp;TSCA&nbsp;becomes critical. Insurance and litigation are after-the-fact responses&nbsp;that&nbsp;deal with damage already done.&nbsp;TSCA, if implemented properly, manages the risk upstream&nbsp;by&nbsp;regulating&nbsp;which&nbsp;chemicals enter&nbsp;and stay on&nbsp;the market in the first place,&nbsp;with&nbsp;the ability to&nbsp;force&nbsp;companies to&nbsp;test,&nbsp;monitor&nbsp;or even&nbsp;switch to safer alternatives. Without that mandate, voluntary action is unreliable. Companies delay. And those with existing PFAS liability have every incentive to lobby against the very regulations that would expose them.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, this&nbsp;vital&nbsp;chemical safety law&nbsp;is under attack&nbsp;in Congress.&nbsp;Prior to 2016, PFAS entered the market with&nbsp;limited assessment of&nbsp;their full risks.&nbsp;At the same time, PFAS contamination created&nbsp;a classic market failure: companies and insurance providers&nbsp;couldn\u2019t&nbsp;accurately price long-term harm, and markets&nbsp;didn\u2019t&nbsp;correct it in time. TSCA was amended with bipartisan support in 2016,&nbsp;which raised&nbsp;the bar for safety&nbsp;and led&nbsp;to stronger restrictions&nbsp;for&nbsp;chemicals&nbsp;that get approved.&nbsp;Without strong upfront review, markets systematically underprice chemical risk \u2013 and businesses pay later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Maintaining&nbsp;a strong&nbsp;Toxic Substances Control&nbsp;Act&nbsp;is&nbsp;a market-stabilizing tool<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The bottom line:&nbsp;more PFAS means more lawsuits, higher premiums, and&nbsp;greater&nbsp;financial risk for everyone, not just direct users. Weakening&nbsp;TSCA&nbsp;doesn&#8217;t&nbsp;reduce that&nbsp;burden,&nbsp;it just defers it. For companies that want to get ahead of the next wave of litigation, the&nbsp;smartest&nbsp;move is to&nbsp;support sound rules that keep the next generation of&nbsp;PFAS out of&nbsp;their supply chains.&nbsp;The insurance market has already sent its warning. The question is whether businesses \u2014 and&nbsp;policymakers&nbsp;\u2014 are listening.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This blog was authored by:\u00a0Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities, and Abhinand Krishnashankar, Manager, Economics and Policy. Every year, new lawsuits reveal the shocking scale of PFAS contamination.&nbsp;&nbsp;These&nbsp;common&nbsp;and long-lasting&nbsp;synthetic&nbsp;\u201cforever\u201d&nbsp;chemicals have been quietly entering our water systems, soil, and bodies long before we had the tools to detect them. Now, as the&nbsp;increasing burden&nbsp;of the&nbsp;liability&nbsp;of PFAS contamination&nbsp;becomes clear, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":152912,"featured_media":2291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7972,4017,105915,43,9306],"tags":[105931,105924,106009,106007,105917,106008],"coauthors":[106004,106003],"class_list":["post-2290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air-pollution","category-clean-air-act","category-climate-change","category-economics","category-market-101","tag-climate-policies","tag-economics","tag-forever-chemicals","tag-health","tag-insurance","tag-pfas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Forever Chemicals\u00a0Are Uninsurable. 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Every year, new lawsuits reveal the shocking scale of PFAS contamination.&nbsp;&nbsp;These&nbsp;common&nbsp;and long-lasting&nbsp;synthetic&nbsp;\u201cforever\u201d&nbsp;chemicals have been quietly entering our water systems, soil, and bodies long before we had the tools to detect them. Now, as the&nbsp;increasing burden&nbsp;of the&nbsp;liability&nbsp;of PFAS contamination&nbsp;becomes clear, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/2026\/07\/29\/forever-chemicals-are-uninsurable-heres-what-that-means-for-business\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Market Forces\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-29T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/32\/files\/\/GettyImages-89279834-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1655\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roya Alkafaji, Abhinand Krishnashankar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roya Alkafaji, Abhinand Krishnashankar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/markets\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/29\\\/forever-chemicals-are-uninsurable-heres-what-that-means-for-business\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/markets\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/29\\\/forever-chemicals-are-uninsurable-heres-what-that-means-for-business\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roya Alkafaji\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.edf.org\\\/markets\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/0320fa4c9c7cc3de5c9d2a42e74954bc\"},\"headline\":\"Forever Chemicals\u00a0Are Uninsurable. 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Here's What That Means for Business.\u00a0 - Market Forces","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/markets\/2026\/07\/29\/forever-chemicals-are-uninsurable-heres-what-that-means-for-business\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Forever Chemicals\u00a0Are Uninsurable. Here's What That Means for Business.\u00a0 - Market Forces","og_description":"This blog was authored by:\u00a0Roya Alkafaji, Manager, Healthy Communities, and Abhinand Krishnashankar, Manager, Economics and Policy. Every year, new lawsuits reveal the shocking scale of PFAS contamination.&nbsp;&nbsp;These&nbsp;common&nbsp;and long-lasting&nbsp;synthetic&nbsp;\u201cforever\u201d&nbsp;chemicals have been quietly entering our water systems, soil, and bodies long before we had the tools to detect them. 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