SPECCHEMONLINE . COM

NOV / DEC 2021

SPECIALITY

CHEMICALS

MAGAZINE

EDITOR ' S LETTER

TRUSTED SINCE 1971

Spectrum ’ s success over the last 50 years has been due in great part to our agility and putting in place new technologies

Published by :

In2Publishing Ltd ., PO Box 7492 , Kidderminster , Worcestershire , DY11 9HB , UK

Publishing Director : Jon Fellows

Editor : Dr Andrew Warmington editor @ specchemonline . com

US Editor : Gregory Morris gdlm @ enterpriseandindustry . com

Design : Sean Roper

Global Commercial Manager : Charlie Wise charlie @ in2publishing . co . uk

Global Agent : Ben Jones bjones @ centurygloballlc . com

COVER PHOTO : Seda Stepanyan , stepanyanphotography . com

While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the publication , In2Publishing Ltd . cannot accept liability for any statement or error contained herein . © Speciality Chemicals Magazine 2021

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES :

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 .

The articles we use are typically 800-1,500 words , with one picture , figure , diagram , table or other illustration per 500 words . Opinion pieces can be shorter . All submissions are subject to review by the editor to ensure that they are in line with house style and values . SCM does not take placed news stories .

Your article should focus on a scheduled feature , or be of general interest across the sector . We also have a ‘ Special Features ’ category if you need to supply a more general piece of work . Article titles should be no longer than 12 words , with a short standfirst summarising the content of the article and giving the name ( s ) and affiliation ( s ) of the author ( s ).

Figures and tables should be numbered and given a caption of no more than ten words . Text should be submitted in Word format , with illustrations as separate files in an editable format . Chemical formulae should be provided as PDFs . Pictures must have a minimum of 300 dpi resolution for colour printing .

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