BANGOR DAILY NEWS • August 9, 2024
Health concerns around PFAS led the Maine Legislature to restrict the substance starting in 2025. However, refrigerants in common use constitute “forever chemicals” necessary to the operation of heat pumps. So decreasing the reliance on wood or fossil fuels for home heating, in favor of heat pumps, has led to a broader distribution of PFAS-like chemicals. This is the law of unintended consequences. Solving one problem — fossil fuel use — has created another, with the wider distribution of “forever chemicals.” Are we better off using fewer fossil fuels and expanding the deployment of heat pumps notwithstanding the PFAS-esque proliferation? Or did we ignore the trade off of one problem for another? No easy answer. ~ Michael Cianchette