Innovate beyond PFAS

The proposed legislation on “forever“ chemicals, which is under consideration in both the European Union and the United States, may support significant advances in the chemistry, material science, product design and process engineering. Forthcoming restrictions on production and usage of PFASes will cause the need for new substances with properties suitable for a given application, but without its persistence in food, drinking water, and the environment.

But this is not the only effect of upcoming regulation. The case of PFAS shows serious weakness of the current chemicals assessment approach, which has traditionally been centered around toxicity and physical hazards of chemicals. And the danger caused by a chemical's persistence and accumulation in the environment, which is multiplying the toxicity of any chemical, has been neglected.

Read more in the Science editorial written by prof. Martin Scheringer from RECETOX, published on July 21, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adj7475.