Miljøprojekt, 1013 – More environmentally friendly alternatives to PFOS-compounds and PFOA

More environmentally friendly alternatives to PFOS-compounds and PFOA

Preface

This project was initiated by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency as a part of the Program for Cleaner Products, Area 1.7 Collection of knowledge and mapping of alternatives to problematic substances.

The report was drafted in the period January 2004 - November 2004, and it contains references to scientific papers being published until October 2004.

Frank Jensen from the Danish EPA supervised the project.

The growing environmental concern of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) derivatives is due to the fact that these potential harmful compounds now are global environmental pollutants distributed in air, water, soils and biota, including in polar bears living in remote arctic areas. In addition, PFOS and PFOA have been observed in human blood samples of the general population in many countries. The reason for this widespread occurrence seems to be that these perfluorinated substances are environmentally persistent and bioaccumulative.

PFOS and a range of related perfluorinated compounds are used in numerous industrial products and consumer products because of their special chemical properties, for instance the ability to repel both water and oils.

PFOA is used as a processing aid in the manufacture of fluoropolymers. PFOA is a well-documented contaminant in PFOS-related chemicals and fluorotelomers and may be found as an impurity in products containing PFOS-related chemicals.

This project report contains the newest information about the properties, use and occurrences of PFOS, PFOA and related polyfluorinated compounds. In addition, a search for and a preliminary assessment of possible alternatives to these types of chemicals were done.

The report focuses mainly on the Danish situation but may also be a contribution to the PFOS/PFOA discussion at European level.

March 2005