Re:New PFAS discovered with novel testing method
by mrob on Monday December 18, 2023 @04:39PM
(#38688717)
This applies only to small molecule PFAS, not PFAS polymers, which are about as inert as you can get. You need the small molecules to make the polymers, but there's no reason you need to release them into the environment. Strong regulation (e.g. Chinese style, with lengthy prison sentences or death penalty for CEOs of companies violating them) could enforce strict containment of the reactions and safe disposal of the waste with techniques such as supercritical water oxidation.
This would increase the cost, but there's no good substitute for PFAS polymers, so people who really needed them would be willing to pay.
Re:New PFAS discovered with novel testing method
by bordercases on Tuesday December 19, 2023 @12:18AM
(#38692126)
If the case is that clear, then perhaps so could regulatory enforcement?
I don't think many chemists want to admit that there's very little reason to believe any PFAS formulation could ever really be safe. Perhaps one could be designed to break down faster and be less bioaccumulating in animals but realistically their mechanism of action as surfactants - the reason they're so industrially useful - is the very reason they're toxic to living organisms.
Surfactants fundamentally change the surface tension of water and other fluids which has an effect on everything from how biological surfaces adhere to each other (including to the internal extracellular matrix that most multicellular life depends on to organize its cells) to how proteins fold together. Normally surfactants like soap, lecithin in egg yolks, and glycolipids are not a problem because they're immediately biodegradable but not PFAS.
The carbon-flourine bonds that make them so resistant to breakdown and so bioaccumulating are the reason why they work in such a wide range of industrial environments, surviving high temperature and strong redox reagents that would normally rip apart any other molecule. It's the worst kind of catch 22. The whole class should be banned and the industry forced to live with the consequences like all the anti-fouling agents that are banned in the maritime industry.