PFAS remains front-burner issue heading into 2024

Companies in the rubber and polymer industries long thought they didn't need to pay attention to the storm brewing around PFAS, commonly known as "forever chemicals."

But they quickly found that wasn't the case, as the mounting regulations and litigation centered on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances wouldn't leave them out of the fray.

Producers and users of fluoroelastomers and fluoropolymers argued that their products were safe and didn't pose the dangers to humans and the environment that other types of PFAS, such as PFOS and PFOA, do.

The term PFAS applies to a group of 10,000 or more chemicals, and some of these were found to be carcinogens or cause harm to unborn children, have a detrimental effect on organs and have made their way into drinking water sources in levels beyond what is considered safe.

Because of this, PFAS is a topic that some say could become the asbestos of this generation. And it certainly has been a front-burner topic throughout 2023 and undoubtedly will remain so into 2024 and beyond.

Thus far, the European Union is looking at a regulatory proposal that conceivably could ban all PFAS, the U.S. EPA is stepping up its activity, and some U.S. states are enacting their own PFAS regulations. In addition, litigation already has resulted in a number of multibillion-dollar awards and settlements.

At its base, PFAS is a "diverse group of chemistries characterized by the strong bond between fluorine and carbon," according to the American Chemistry Council.

Because of this strong bond—the strongest in organic chemistry—PFAS provides products with "strength, durability, stability and resilience." All are properties that have made them highly sought after in a broad range of critical uses. FKMs and fluoropolymers are used in high-end applications across automotive, aerospace, electronics, chemical processing, semiconductor manufacturing and medical uses.

But those in the rubber and plastic industry say a new definition for PFAS is needed, one that doesn't lump in the polymers they contend are safe with the known bad actors among the "forever chemicals." They said fluoropolymers have been identified as materials of very low concern because they're in a solid state and don't dissolve into the water supply.

"When it's a solid phase, the PFAS intermediate process chemicals are trapped in that matrix, and they just aren't mobile," said Joe Walker, who retired earlier this spring from Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Solutions and now is a consultant under the Elastomer Technologies moniker. "They just don't come out, in conditions in a landfill or in normal environment.

"... I don't diminish the effect of PFAS, but let's redefine what we're trying to prevent here," he told Rubber News. "You're not trying to prevent the use of Teflon. You're trying to eliminate the contamination of our water and soil. I think if they would just revise that definition to a simpler one, it would be a lot more relief."

As is often the case, Europe moved first in proposing a wide-ranging restriction proposal on PFAS chemicals.

And in doing so, the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) didn't put forth a narrow target. Instead it swung big, putting forth a measure that calls for the eventual banning of roughly 10,000 PFAS materials.

Those producing or using fluoropolymers say their "inert" materials are being lumped in with all the other materials, in some part due to public pressure and perception. They argue that all people seem to hear about is PFAS usage in such things as pizza boxes and ski waxes, among a myriad of other products.

But the authorities who prepared restrictions in the 1,800-page document argued that including the broad range of PFAS materials was needed because, if their releases aren't minimized, people, plants and animals increasingly will be exposed.

They estimate that over 30 years, about 4.4 million metric tons of PFASs would end up in the environment if no action is taken. And once released, they said PFAS materials can remain in the environment for decades.

"All PFASs in this proposal are either very persistent themselves or degrade into very persistent PFASs in the environment," said Wiebke Drost of the German Environment Agency and a member of the ECHA PFAS Restriction Committee. He added that if levels of PFAS continue to accumulate, safe levels will be exceeded and "adverse effects on humans and the environment will be inevitable."

And while many are urging the development of alternatives, Frenk Hulsebosch, Chemours Co. director for Advanced Materials, said that isn't as simple as it sounds.

"Since it's the chemical fluorine bonds that gives these properties—that's very fundamental—unless there is going to be a new element invented, I don't think there will be alternatives available," he said. "If somebody could use something different, they would be using it by now."

When 3M Corp. revealed at the end of 2022 that it would cease the production and sale of all PFAS-containing products by the end of 2025, it caught some of its customers a bit by surprise.

The St. Paul-Minn.-based firm is considered one of the top three global suppliers of fluoroelastomer and fluoropolymer materials. It has a long history in the FKM and FP arenas with its Dyneon family of materials supplying a wide variety of critical applications. The company offers more than 50 grades alone of its FKMs, and the Dyneon business produces 180,000 metric tons of fluorine-based polymers a year, including fluoroelastomers, PTFE, fluoroplastics and polymers additives, according to the 3M website.

While the company said its materials are safe and effective in their intended uses, it based its decision to walk away from the $1.3 billion in annual sales those PFAS-containing products contained. 3M said it based its decision "on careful consideration and a thorough evaluation of the evolving external landscape, including multiple factors such as accelerating regulatory trends focused on reducing or eliminating the presence of PFAS in the environment and changing stakeholder expectations."

One thing that caught the industry off guard was that 3M is completely exiting the business, and not selling the assets of the technology. Some sources told Rubber News that it was their belief that this decision was because the company wanted to limit future liability on something that already had proved costly.

Although the decision gave customers three full years to line up replacement suppliers, the specialty nature of many of 3M's offerings means testing and validation of new materials can take 12 to 36 months.

"I think the key is to be systematic about it," said Ellen Clunk, chief procurement officer for Hexpol Compounding Americas. "We're partnering with our customers, and we just need to keep moving along. We can't put our head in the sand and say it's not happening, because it is."

Chemours Co. and Solvay S.A.—seen as the other two firms in the top three global players in FKMs—both appear committed to continue supplying the markets going forward. And Indian firm Gujaret Fluorochemicals Ltd. has invested to add capacity and is looking to build its sales in such areas as North America, Europe and Japan.

There was no shortage of activity on the litigation front involving PFAS chemicals in 2023, including several class action settlements that brought some staggering settlements.

A U.S. district judge in Charleston, S.C., gave preliminary approval to a class action settlement between 3M Co. and public water suppliers after a group of attorneys general withdrew their opposition after a number of changes were made to the original deal.

3M will pay anywhere from $10.3 billion to $12.5 billion to help mitigate the costs associated with claims that 3M contaminated water sources with PFAS chemicals.

But 3M was far from the only company that will have to pay big settlements.

Chemours Co., DuPont de Nemours Inc. and Corteva Inc. collectively will pay $1.185 billion to a settlement fund in a June 2 resolution of all their PFAS-related drinking water claims within a defined class of public water systems, mainly in the U.S. They also reached a $110 million settlement in November with the state of Ohio to resolve claims over the production and sale of PFAS substances.

The three pay an agreed-upon percentage of such claims, dating back to an agreement when Chemours and Corteva were spun off from DuPont.

And Solvay Specialty Polymers USA L.L.C. said June 28 it will pay more than $392 million to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, having reached an agreement to resolve its PFAS-related claims in the state.

But not all cases went against the companies supplying the "forever chemicals."

A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals' Sixth Circuit in late November threw out a large class-action lawsuit filed by a Glendale, Ohio, firefighter against 10 chemical companies over exposure to PFAS chemicals.

3M, DuPont, Solvay, Arkema, AGC Chemicals and Daikin Industries were among the defendants named in the personal injury lawsuit, first filed in 2018.

The regulatory community was busy this past year looking at "forever chemicals," and will remain busy heading into 2024.

The ECHA is sifting through the more than 5,600 comments from over 4,400 organizations, companies and individuals it received on its proposal to eventually ban PFAS in the European Union. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency in September issued its final rule mandating reporting tied to the manufacture and usage of PFAS.

The rule requires all manufacturers—including importers—of PFAS and PFAS-containing articles in any year since 2011 to report "information related to chemical identity, uses, volumes made and processed, byproducts, environmental and health effects, worker exposure, and disposal to EPA."

But a number of states have been taking matters into their own hands.

Jay West, senior director of chemical products and technology at the American Chemistry Council, said in 2023 U.S. states introduced 270 PFAS-related bills. He said during a presentation at the ACS Rubber Division's International Elastomer Conference in October that there are many "who believe the states are actually more of a threat to the continued use of fluoropolymers and fluoroelastomers than the federal government."

And one attorney cautions not to look for the federal government to issue a unifying standard, as having differing regulations isn't uncommon.

"After 34 years in this space, I would not have any realistic expectations for a harmonizing of PFAS standards going forward," Grant Gilezan, an attorney with Dykema Gossett P.L.L.C., told Rubber News. "I would not be advising people to there being a universal approach."