In a sweeping update to the law, Maine’s 5-year-old ban on products made using toxic forever chemicals is about to expand to thousands of everyday household products, including children’s toys, cookware and cosmetics.

On Jan. 1, the state will also require all cleaning fluids, dental floss, menstrual products, ski wax, textiles and upholstered furniture sold in Maine to be free of forever chemicals, or PFAS, a group of manmade chemicals that don’t break down easily in the environment or the body.

“This action is intended to protect consumers and the environment from potential exposure to a class of chemicals that can have detrimental health effects,” said Kerri Farris, the Safer Chemicals Program manager at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Even trace amounts of perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances are linked by the National Institutes of Health to a range of health problems, including compromised immune systems, low birth weights and several types of cancer.

With this expansion, Maine will be one of four states to ban the sale of nonstick cookware made with PFAS. Minnesota adopted the nation’s first PFAS ban on cookware last year. Bans in Colorado and Connecticut will go into effect in 2026.

The 2026 update expands on a law that Maine adopted in 2021 that called for phasing PFAS out of almost all products by 2030. The rollout was delayed after businesses said they needed time to test their products and find reasonable PFAS-free alternatives.

In 2024, national companies conceded that they use of dozens of different PFAS chemicals in a thousand consumer products sold in Maine, from swimsuits to cameras to eyeshadow. At that time, companies were required to inform Maine of PFAS in their products, but not all complied.

Some manufacturers have sought and obtained exemptions from the original law, like those that make medical devices and semiconductors. Eleven companies sought exemptions from the latest phase. The state only granted two of those, both for cleaning containers, but not the fluids inside.

Cookware manufacturers told the Board of Environmental Protection that their products should be exempt. Some claimed making pots and pans with PFAS substitutes would drive up the prices, while others claimed they could find no PFAS substitute.

But Farris said Minnesota regulators assured her that cooks there have plenty of nonstick cookware options that are readily available in stores and online and can be found for a comparable price. She said it is unlikely that the ban will even be noticeable to Maine consumers.

“They’ll be safer, but most probably won’t even know,” Farris said. “That’s just the way we like it.”

Maine’s PFAS in products program only has one employee, Farris said. It does not have the staff capacity or budget to randomly test consumer products to confirm that companies are complying with the new law, she said.

Instead, Maine will rely on regulators in other states or third-party groups to bring a product that is out of compliance to the DEP’s attention, Farris said. In that case, DEP will ask a manufacturer for a certificate of product compliance, she said. DEP could then independently verify the results.

Defend Our Health, a Portland nonprofit that lobbied on behalf of the PFAS product ban, plans to take its watchdog role seriously and will be checking retail shelves frequently, according to Emily Carey Perez de Alejo, the group’s executive director.

“Maine has such a huge opportunity to really change the retail products for sale across the nation, but only if we name and shame the folks selling toxic products in violation of the law,” said Perez de Alejo. “We are a small but mighty state and we are punching way above our weight on PFAS.”

Her group is building a network of science, public health and legal partners to scan retailers, legal filings and public records to target manufacturers that are breaking the law so the state can focus its limited staff and budget on confirmed scofflaws.

The first products forced to remove PFAS under the 2021 law were carpets and fabric treatments, which went into effect in 2023. Turf and outdoor apparel will be added in 2029, and heating and cooling equipment will be added in 2040.