PFAS here. . .PFAS there. . .PFAS is everywhere we turn in the first few months of 2024. PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) is the latest buzzword in the global specialty chemicals industry. It has come into universal usage when invoking any chemical included in a family of fluorine-containing chemical compounds that are used by a nearly endless list of manufacturers producing a staggering number of products for a seemingly infinite number of applications in virtually all market and product segments.
Thanks to their unique properties and unmatched performance, various types of PFAS are used across all sectors of the global economy, including numerous cutting-edge applications. Driven by global megatrends such as the energy transition and digitalization, they are key enablers of major innovations across a wide range of critical industries.1 All of this notwithstanding, in early 2024, PFAS is a problem—and it is a problem for four principal reasons: