Speciality Chemicals Magazine NOV / DEC 2021 | Page 5

SPECCHEMONLINE . COM
NOV / DEC 2021
SPECIALITY
CHEMICALS
MAGAZINE
EDITOR ' S LETTER
TRUSTED SINCE 1971
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Editor : Dr Andrew Warmington editor @ specchemonline . com
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Speciality Chemicals Magazine welcomes feature articles from industry , consultants and academia with a technical , chemistry , regulatory and / or business and market focus . We also welcome opinion or comment pieces on issues in the fine and speciality chemicals sectors .
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Be careful what you wish for …

The world ’ s direction of travel on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ( PFAS ) is clear enough . It is ironic , though , that in the same month that the US EPA announced its Strategic Roadmap to confront PFAS contamination , evidence also emerged that some substitutes might be even worse . The PFAS family consists of almost 5,000 chemicals used in widespread and diverse applications . They have been dubbed ‘ forever chemicals ’, because they do not degrade in nature . Exposure to them has been linked to many health and environmental problems . Manufacturers have reached billion-dollar settlements in several US states to cover their liability . PFAS are also a growing issue in the EU . On 18 October , flanked by senators , state governors and NGO leaders , EPA administrator Michael Regan formally announced the roadmap . The agency described it as “ a critical step forward in addressing PFAS pollution ” that will involve every level of government and , subject to Congress ’ s approval , will be backed by $ 10 billion in federal funding The roadmap centres on three ‘ guiding strategies ’ of increased investments in research , leveraging authorities to take action now to restrict PFAS chemicals from being released into the environment and accelerating the clean-up of PFAS contamination . There is also a national testing strategy that requires manufacturers to provide the agency with toxicity data and information on categories of PFAS chemicals . Shortly before this , Swedish-based ChemSec revealed that over 50 companies have joined the corporate ‘ PFAS Movement ’ it launched just over a year ago . Three US firms , Naturepedic , Seventh Generation and Beautycounter are now among the mainly European membership . In this context , it was a little unfortunate that an EPA assessment released only a week after the roadmap found that the ammonium salt developed by Dupont and now made by Chemours are actually more toxic than PFOA . GenX was touted as a “ sustainable substitute ” processing aid ; PFOA production has been phased out but remains a serious pollution issue . Following tests , safe daily does levels of 3 ng / kg of body weight / day were established for GenX and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid , into which it hydrolyses into in the presence of water . Beyond that , they are linked to the same health issues as PFAS . This is well down from an initial level of 80 the agency calculated in 2018 . PFOA ’ s is 20 , though that could change as toxicity information is constantly being evaluated . Assessing GenX actually was a necessary part of the roadmap . “ This sciencebased final assessment marks a critical step in the process of establishing a national drinking water health advisory for GenX chemicals ,” commented EPA assistant administrator for water Radhika Fox . However , it reminds us that simply replacing a toxic chemical is rarely a simple matter . As the old saying goes , ‘ Be careful what you wish for , you just might get it ’.
Dr Andrew Warmington
EDITOR – SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE
FOR FURTHER GUIDELINES :
editor @ specchemonline . com
NOV / DEC 2021
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