Figuière Romain, Miaz Luc T, Savvidou Eleni, Cousins Ian T
Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm SE-10691, Sweden.
Environ Sci Technol. 2025 Feb 4;59(4):2031-2042. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.4c09088. Epub 2025 Jan 24.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are used in a wide range of different industrial and consumer applications. However, due to their extreme environmental persistence and their impacts on human and ecosystem health, PFAS have been subject to many regulatory activities, including initiatives to incentivize industry to transition toward PFAS-free alternatives. Although efforts have been made to map all uses of PFAS, work is still needed to provide an overview of their potential alternatives. Based on the functional substitution approach, this study develops an online database that documents all known uses of PFAS, describes the functions provided by PFAS in these uses, lists potential alternatives that can deliver equivalent or similar functions to PFAS, and evaluates the suitability of the identified alternatives to replace PFAS. Overall, the database lists 325 different applications of PFAS across 18 use categories. In total, 530 PFAS-free alternatives are identified. Based on a screening of potential concerns of the identified alternatives, their performance compared to PFAS, and their availability on the market, it is concluded that potentially suitable alternatives to PFAS are available for 40 different applications. For 83 applications, no alternatives could be identified at the time of the study and should be the focus of further research activities.
全氟和多氟烷基物质（PFAS）被广泛应用于各种不同的工业和消费领域。然而，由于其极强的环境持久性以及对人类和生态系统健康的影响，PFAS已受到许多监管行动的约束，包括鼓励行业向无PFAS替代品转型的举措。尽管已经努力梳理PFAS的所有用途，但仍需开展工作以概述其潜在替代品。基于功能替代方法，本研究开发了一个在线数据库，该数据库记录了PFAS的所有已知用途，描述了PFAS在这些用途中所提供的功能，列出了能够提供与PFAS等效或相似功能的潜在替代品，并评估了所确定替代品替代PFAS的适用性。总体而言，该数据库列出了PFAS在18个用途类别中的325种不同应用。总共确定了530种无PFAS替代品。基于对所确定替代品潜在问题的筛选、其与PFAS相比的性能以及在市场上的可得性，得出的结论是，对于40种不同应用，有潜在合适的PFAS替代品。对于83种应用，在研究时未发现替代品，应成为进一步研究活动的重点。
