Minnesota dealers left with unsellable youth ATVs and dirt bikes because of PFAS ban

Honda and Yamaha are telling dealers around Minnesota to pull some youth models of ATVs and dirt bikes from the sales floor, because the vehicles contain illegal PFAS chemicals.

“Juvenile products” is one of the first 11 categories banned this year from containing toxic PFAS chemicals, under a law that Minnesota passed in 2023. Advocates for the ban, the farthest reaching of its kind among states, say that major manufacturers should have warned their dealers earlier that the prohibition would affect youth vehicles.

But some lawmakers are casting the situation as state overreach. They favor revising Amara’s Law, the product ban named for a Woodbury woman who grew up drinking PFAS-tainted water and died at 20 of a rare cancer. Though the ban is nine days old, it already faces challenges — earlier this week, major cookware manufacturers sued the state over it.

Tom Stifter, the general manager of Davis Motorsports in Delano, said he has $30,000 in inventory he can no longer sell, and manufacturers haven’t been forthcoming about where the chemicals are present in bikes or other models. PFAS can be used for waterproofing, in lubricants and as fire suppressants.

RJ Sport & Cycle in Duluth also posted on Facebook shortly before Christmas about Honda models that could no longer be sold after Jan. 1, writing, “Apparently too many kids over the years have been licking the side panels and we can’t have that anymore.”

Reached by email, a spokesman for Yamaha Motor Corp. USA, wrote that the the company was “fully committed” to following state law and helping dealers, and that “We aim to ensure no dealer is ‘stuck’ with inventory as a result of Minnesota’s new regulatory changes.”

A spokesperson for Honda’s powersports division also wrote that the company would help dealers offload merchandise they can’t sell to other states. “We also do not agree that this law was meant to include Powersports products, but unfortunately how it is written it can include some of our products,” the email read.

Honda notified its dealers Dec. 20 of vehicles that couldn’t be sold, according to a copy of the message obtained by the Star Tribune. Yamaha sent out a notification Jan. 3, two days after the ban went into effect, according to a copy of that company’s notification.

Minnesota passed a law banning PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, to protect people from exposure and to reduce pollution circulating through landfills, incinerators and water treatment plants. Some of the chemicals have been linked with cancers, and will be banned in almost all products by 2032. Starting this year, PFAS are prohibited in a smaller group of items lawmakers determined were more urgent — like makeup, cooking utensils, and any item marketed to kids 12 and younger.

The chemicals’ use is well known in waterproof clothing and cookware. But it landed as a surprise for Stifter, who said he frequently sells youth vehicles to the children and grandchildren of longtime customers.

“We are sensitive to the environment. If our environment gets ruined, my industry is ruined,” Stifter said. Still, he added, youth machines have “got to be something we have on our floor, so people can bring in their kids.”

Republican state Rep. Natalie Zeleznikar, whose St. Louis County district includes RJ Sport & Cycle, said the juvenile products ban makes sense for things like baby bottles or crib mattresses. But she said the definition should be narrowed to avoid hurting small businesses.

“The sales are just going to happen in other states,” she said.

Sen. Judy Seeberger, DFL-Afton, authored the Senate version of Amara’s Law. She said she understood Zeleznikar’s position — but questioned why Honda and Yamaha had sold what would soon be illegal inventory to dealers on the eve of the ban.

“Young users are not using a piece of powersports equipment like a baby would use a pacifier, but we’re still introducing this substance into the environment, and that’s not okay,” said Seeberger, whose district faces widespread PFAS pollution problems from a 3M chemical plant’s waste.

The state has adjusted its approach in a few situations. The law exempts certain electronics marketed to children, such as phones and computers. Last year the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said it also would not be enforcing the PFAS ban in electronic components of small cooking appliances, like waffle irons.

It’s unclear what legislative action could come this year. The state House starts the session gridlocked as DFLers and Republicans wrestle over which party in the evenly split body will take the speaker’s gavel. The state Senate is temporarily evenly divided after the death of DFL Sen. Kari Dziedzic.