TY - JOUR

T1 - Zürich II Statement on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs)

T2 - Scientific and Regulatory Needs

AU - DeWitt, Jamie C.

AU - Glüge, Juliane

AU - Cousins, Ian T.

AU - Goldenman, Gretta

AU - Herzke, Dorte

AU - Lohmann, Rainer

AU - Miller, Mark

AU - Ng, Carla A.

AU - Patton, Sharyle

AU - Trier, Xenia

AU - Vierke, Lena

AU - Wang, Zhanyun

AU - Adu-Kumi, Sam

AU - Balan, Simona

AU - Buser, Andreas M.

AU - Fletcher, Tony

AU - Haug, Line Småstuen

AU - Huang, Jun

AU - Kaserzon, Sarit

AU - Leonel, Juliana

AU - Sheriff, Ishmail

AU - Shi, Ya Li

AU - Valsecchi, Sara

AU - Scheringer, Martin

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.

PY - 2024/4

Y1 - 2024/4

N2 - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of synthetic organic chemicals of global concern. A group of 36 scientists and regulators from 18 countries held a hybrid workshop in 2022 in Zürich, Switzerland. The workshop, a sequel to a previous Zürich workshop held in 2017, deliberated on progress in the last five years and discussed further needs for cooperative scientific research and regulatory action on PFASs. This review reflects discussion and insights gained during and after this workshop and summarizes key signs of progress in science and policy, ongoing critical issues to be addressed, and possible ways forward. Some key take home messages include: 1) understanding of human health effects continues to develop dramatically, 2) regulatory guidelines continue to drop, 3) better understanding of emissions and contamination levels is needed in more parts of the world, 4) analytical methods, while improving, still only cover around 50 PFASs, and 5) discussions of how to group PFASs for regulation (including subgroupings) have gathered momentum with several jurisdictions proposing restricting a large proportion of PFAS uses. It was concluded that more multi-group exchanges are needed in the future and that there should be a greater diversity of participants at future workshops.

AB - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of synthetic organic chemicals of global concern. A group of 36 scientists and regulators from 18 countries held a hybrid workshop in 2022 in Zürich, Switzerland. The workshop, a sequel to a previous Zürich workshop held in 2017, deliberated on progress in the last five years and discussed further needs for cooperative scientific research and regulatory action on PFASs. This review reflects discussion and insights gained during and after this workshop and summarizes key signs of progress in science and policy, ongoing critical issues to be addressed, and possible ways forward. Some key take home messages include: 1) understanding of human health effects continues to develop dramatically, 2) regulatory guidelines continue to drop, 3) better understanding of emissions and contamination levels is needed in more parts of the world, 4) analytical methods, while improving, still only cover around 50 PFASs, and 5) discussions of how to group PFASs for regulation (including subgroupings) have gathered momentum with several jurisdictions proposing restricting a large proportion of PFAS uses. It was concluded that more multi-group exchanges are needed in the future and that there should be a greater diversity of participants at future workshops.

KW - bilateral workshops

KW - international cooperation

KW - Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances

KW - persistence

KW - PFASs

KW - Zürich Statement

U2 - 10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00147

DO - 10.1021/acs.estlett.4c00147

M3 - Review

AN - SCOPUS:85191170698

JO - Environmental Science & Technology Letters

JF - Environmental Science & Technology Letters

SN - 2328-8930

ER -