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‘Forever chemical’ bans face hard truth: Many can’t be replaced
(www.japantimes.co.jp)
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this post was submitted on 21 Oct 2023
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PFAS are used in so many forms (solvents, polymers, etc.) that I think the replacement will be very dependent on the specific use case (and potentially other regulations on alternatives, particularly for solvents). I'm not knowledgeable about every field these compounds are used in and for privacy/NDA purposes I can't talk about the specifics of the ones I worked with.
You are certainly much more knowledgeable about this than I.
In broad general terms:
Doesn't the fluorine make them both effective and forever? Isn't it difficult to create a lower energy state molecule than a compound of fluorine.
Is "forever" the problem?
The points you have brought up seem to be an issue with responsibile manufacturing more than the nature of the chemicals themselves. Seems like that should be addressed on a much wider discussion than just these particular compounds.
For many applications, yes. Fluorinated compounds tend to be quite inert. There are definitely some applications where the compounds don't need to be resistant to every type of chemical attack and you could use a more specialized compound that is generally less inert but performs similarly in whatever conditions you put it under.
Forever is a big part of the problem, but it's worth noting that if a compound is completely nontoxic then bioaccumulation doesn't matter as much (though some nontoxic chemicals can increase the potency of other, toxic chemicals and cause problems that way: see this article)
Yes. We need increased strictness on regulations and enforcement for these compounds and others because that's the only way to make companies comply.