More than 20 years ago, Linda Lee, PhD, was analyzing freshwater mussel samples for polychlorinated biphenyls. Instead, she found per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This class of chemicals is also known as “forever chemicals,” since they tend to persist and only partially break down, allowing them to build up in the environment, animals, and human bodies. Once believed to be inert, PFAS have been commonplace in commercial products and industrial processes since the 1940s. They may now be found in water, air, soil, fish, food products, and the blood of people all over the world.

Lee, a distinguished professor at Purdue University, wasn’t sure how to follow up on her initial findings. She hadn’t collected the mussel samples herself—they had been provided by members of a Native American community concerned with potential contamination of a lake they used as an agricultural water source. She didn’t know what legal issues she might encounter by publishing this data. “I wasn’t prepared to be in the spotlight at all at that time,” she said, “so the data’s still sitting on my computer!”

In the decades since then, researchers have developed a better understanding of the effects of PFAS on humans and the environment. PFAS exposures have been linked to a range of human health impacts, including those on reproduction, development, the immune system, hormones, cholesterol levels, obesity, and cancer. Consequently, this large family of substances has emerged as a major concern for scientists, regulators, and product stewards. Researching the fate of these chemicals, including their effects, remediation, and management, has come to dominate Lee’s career.

“These chemicals give us amazing properties in our products and in the manufacturing process,” said Lee. “And so, we are now faced with having to deal with them in the environment, while we’re also faced with replacing them and still staying competitive in a global economy.”

Twenty Years of Increasing Scrutiny

In 2001, the chemical company DuPont was the defendant in a class-action suit, after environmental testing revealed perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) contaminating drinking water near the company’s West Virginia facilities where the chemical was used or disposed of. Residents of the surrounding area feared that exposure to PFOA, which is in the PFAS family, may have caused them to develop cancers and other health problems. As part of the class action settlement, DuPont funded medical testing for almost 70,000 West Virginia residents. Over the next ten years, a panel of epidemiologists would determine how much PFOA was in their blood and whether the chemical had impacted their health.

In the meantime, the class-action suit brought PFAS under increased scrutiny. In 2005, Lee related, representatives from DuPont approached her to discuss “the challenges with the particular PFAS that they produce.” The DuPont group believed that universities needed “to start developing the science to study them and start investigating their fate, behavior, and toxicity,” Lee said, “so that there would be enough data out there to start thinking about how we should manage these chemicals.”

With a donation from DuPont, Lee purchased the mass spectrometer she needed to launch her foray into PFAS research. Her first proposal to the National Science Foundation sought to determine how the fluorinated “tails” in PFAS molecules behave differently when attached to hydrocarbon “backbones.” Since then, funding for Lee’s PFAS research has only increased. “After that, I guess it’s history,” she said.

Now, Lee splits her research between investigating how society can manage legacy PFAS, end the use of PFAS, and remediate the ongoing effects of PFAS exposures. “We are surrounded with the need to understand these compounds and where our effort needs to go,” she said. “So, we need to improve product stewardship and provide products for people that are safe and aren’t going to be long-term thorns in our side.”

Phasing Out PFAS

In 2011, the panel of epidemiologists convened in the settlement of the 2001 class-action suit began to release their findings—including that the plaintiffs’ cancers were likely linked to PFOA exposures. A working group of the International Association for Research on Cancer determined in 2023 that PFOA is a human carcinogen, based on “sufficient evidence for cancer in experimental animals and strong mechanistic evidence … in exposed humans.”

Regulators are beginning to catch up with the science relating to PFOA and other PFAS, such as perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). In 2005, the Environmental Protection Agency accused DuPont of violating the Toxic Substances Control Act by concealing knowledge of PFOA’s toxicity and environmental presence. The company ultimately paid a $16.5 million civil administration penalty to EPA. Within the last several years, the EPA has taken regulatory actions to protect communities and the environment from PFAS. The agency’s PFAS Strategic Roadmap indicates that product stewards can expect more regulations in the future.

A significant challenge to replacing PFAS is the ubiquity of this class of chemicals. PFAS may be found in semiconductors, solar panels, fire extinguishing foam, food packaging, carpets, upholstery, clothing, cleaning products, non-stick cookware, paints, varnishes, sealants, shampoo, dental floss, and cosmetics. The chemicals are used to manufacture chrome plating, electronics, textiles, and paper. Their unique properties make them difficult to replace.

Moreover, Lee warned that the large number of PFAS chemicals means that companies promoting their products as PFOS-free or PFAS-free may be using alternatives that are, in fact, also PFAS. “Oftentimes, the only ones they’re looking at are the ones that everybody is very familiar with,” Lee said. “But the reality is that this family includes thousands of chemicals.” The roughly 40 chemicals currently receiving attention from industry and regulators barely scratch the surface.

Phasing out PFAS may be a long, complicated project. “It can take sometimes a decade to transition to other chemicals in a manufacturing process that are needed to get the products that are being produced with the characteristics needed or that consumers want,” Lee said. “So, while non-PFAS alternatives are being developed and investigated, we need to manage what’s happening at our facilities.”

What Product Stewards Should Know About PFAS

As regulatory actions against PFAS escalate, Lee urged product stewards to inform themselves about the chemical family and the need to find safe alternatives while mitigating the health and environmental effects. She spoke of a product stewardship workshop she had hosted, at which most of the attendees, she found, were not familiar with PFAS as a class. “And I thought, ‘Well, if you’re not aware of it, then nothing’s happening on your front to be prepared for what could be a major shift,’” she said.

Furthermore, she hoped product stewards would recognize that PFAS aren’t only compliance issues. Although Lee recognized the constraints that many product stewards in industry work under, she encouraged them to be proactive in finding alternatives. “Be mindful in knowing what’s going on and starting to make a plan for alternatives and management,” she said. “We have a lot of innovative scientists in companies that could work on alternatives, but they have to be knowledgeable to know there’s a need and be motivated for that to happen.”

This will be one of the key messages in Lee’s closing keynote session at PSX, the Product Stewardship Society conference, in October. “I’m hoping that the audience, no matter what part they might play in the companies that they’re in, will take this back,” she said. “They’ll be knowledgeable enough to have the conversations and be motivated enough to want to spawn innovation in their own companies.”

Linda Lee will give the closing keynote at PSX on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, from 10:45 a.m. to noon, Mountain time. PSX 2024 will be held Oct. 15–17 in Denver, Colorado. To learn more about the keynote sessions, view the conference agenda, or register, visit the conference website.