'Made With PFAS' Label Considered In Senate Committee

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 09/22/2026) A new bill by Sen. Rosemary Bayer (D-Keego Harbor) will require manufacturers in Michigan to label products where PFAS have been intentionally added to them.

PFAS are long-lasting and widely used chemicals that have been linked to higher risks of kidney cancer, weakened immune systems and decreased fertility at certain levels of exposure.

The Senate Natural Resources and Agriculture Committee heard testimony this afternoon on Bayer's SB 816. The bill was opposed by many business groups, like the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Michigan Chemistry Council, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.

Bayer, who's not seeking reelection this year, said her bill provides manufacturers a year to create a "clear label" for products like cookware, children's items, menstruation products, carpets and apparel.

"SB 816 is really quite simple. Our state is spending a lot of real money on PFAS contamination monitoring and testing. Now it's time for us to do something about what we found. Michiganders deserve the right to know that the products they intend to purchase and use in their homes may expose their family members, their kids, to harmful forever chemicals," Bayer said.

However, a similar labeling law was adopted in May in New Mexico. It instructed manufacturers to flag their items with an Erlenmeyer flask illustration with the word "PFAS" placed inside of it.

The American Chemistry Council and partnered trade groups filed a federal lawsuit, arguing that the law violated the First Amendment, interfering with commercial free speech. About six days ago, a federal court granted a preliminary injunction favoring the business organizations, blocking New Mexico from enforcing the law.

The judge determined that New Mexico's government could not demonstrate how the mandatory label fulfilled its expressed goals to protect health and the environment.

When asked about the ruling in New Mexico, Bayer said, "It would be worth the battle to fight that."

"We are cheating our people by not informing them of something that is poisonous," she said.

One of the supporters of Bayer's SB 816 is Sandy Wynn-Stelt, the co-chair of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network.

Wynn-Stelt lives across the street from the former disposal area of Wolverine Worldwide's shoemaking and tanning operations. The location has been flagged for large-scale PFAS contamination in Kent County, resulting in a $69.5 million settlement with the state for Wolverine Worldwide to hook more than 1,000 homes to a municipal water supply, replacing their use of wells that the contamination reached.

She said her husband died in 2016 "quite suddenly and unexpectedly" of liver cancer, and that six years ago, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer.

"My neighborhood children have PFAS in their blood at some of the highest rates. Their vaccines are not effective. They have to have them checked every year. The child next to me, next door, was 2 when he was diagnosed with thyroid disease. My neighbor down the street has kidney cancer," Wynn-Stelt said.

She explained that, as a consumer, she should be able to decide whether she wants to buy and use a product containing PFAS.

"If consumers start choosing products without intentionally added PFAS, then manufacturers will respond. They can innovate. They can find alternatives, and they can compete for my dollars," she said. "That's what market pressure is and I believe that's a very important part of this solution."

Against the bill was Sarah Faye Pierce of Group SEB, a kitchen furniture and accessory maker. She said the labels will threaten nonstick cookware in millions of Michigan kitchens.

She described how the coating that makes pans nonstick is technically made with PFAS, but "is not one of the mobile small molecule acidic PFAS that are the legitimate focus of the environmental and public health concerns."

She said it is too large to cross cell membranes and doesn't dissolve in water.

"At normal cooking temperatures, it is stable, and it is inert, which is why families can cook on it with little or no added fat. It also happens to be the most affordable pan on the market," Pierce said. "We should not compel a warning-style label on a material used safely in food contact for more than six decades. 'Made With PFAS Chemicals' tells a Michigan family nothing about the safety of the pan in their kitchen. It signals danger in every covered product."

Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia) pointed out that the committee was hearing from a woman stricken with cancer and then a woman representing "pans that I kind of like," wanting to know if there were good types of PFAS and bad kinds.

Sen. Sue Shink (D-Dexter), chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Agricultural Committee, struck the idea down, saying, "I've not heard of safe PFAS," and that in the United States, it's up to the people to prove whether a chemical is dangerous or not.