TUESDAY, 18 APRIL 2023

FT.COM

Pollution

EU ban on forever chemicals would hit bloc’s
green transition, warns top industry boss
Chemours chief joins chipmakers in publicly pushing back against bloc’s
proposal to restrict use of PFAS variants
CHENG TING-FANG AND PEGGY HOLLINGER — NEW YORK

E

urope will sabotage its chances ofdeveloping a green economy if itpushes ahead with proposals toban so-called forever chemicals
on health and safety grounds, the chief
executive of one of the world’s leadingchemical companies has warned.
Mark Newman, head of
Delaware-based Chemours, said “therace to decarbonise through hydrogen isgoing to be thwarted” if the EU decided
to ban a class of high-performance,long-lasting fluoropolymers known as
PFAS. “You can’t have electric vehicles
without fluoropolymers, you can’t havesemiconductors,” he added.
These synthetic chemicals are used inmillions of applications from non-stick
cookware to textiles, batteries andsmartphones. The chemical industry
argues that their strong resistance towater, oil, temperature and corrosion
makes them indispensable to manygreen technologies.
However, the molecules do not break
down easily and accumulate over timein humans and in the environment.
Studies have linked several variants toslow foetal and baby growth, kidneycancer and other health problems. The
substances have been found in theblood of 97 per cent of Americans,according to the US government.
Newman is one of the first seniorchemicals executives to push backpublicly against the EU proposal to© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LIMITED 2023

restrict the use of all variants of PFAS,
roughly 10,000 different chemicalcompounds.
“It’s really amazing to me that wewould think of walking away from agroup of chemistries . . . that enables
the green economy.” Such a decision
would direct investment out of the bloc,and “deindustrialise” Europe, he said.
The ban would be particularly detrimental to Chemours, owner of theTeflon brand and one of the world’s
leading PFAS producers. The company
derives roughly a quarter of sales andebitda from the division producing
these materials.
The health and environmental risks
surrounding the chemicals have meantthat chemicals companies are facing arising tide of litigation. BASF saw an 83
per cent rise in legal cases, whileClariant, the Swiss chemicals company,
has been named as a defendant in about
1,000 US PFAS lawsuits, UBS analysts
said in a recent note.
Spun out of DuPont in 2015, in largepart to safeguard the parent company
against PFAS liabilities, Chemours isfacing several lawsuits in the US overthe compounds.
The EU’s proposed ban, led byGermany and the Netherlands, isseveral years in the making and considered to be the most radical chemicallegislation ever proposed.
Last month, the EU opened asix-month consultation on the proposals, while investors have also beencalling for an end to the use of thechemicals. Many US states are moving
to limit the use of PFAS as well.
Newman told the FT he believed that aban on all PFAS variants would be“unenforceable . . . Are you going totake apart everything at the border andlook for fluoropolymer?”
The prospect of a wholesale ban has
sparked deep concern in the semiconductor industry, where fluoropolymers
are critical to the manufacture of themost advanced chips.
Newman said that in many cases there
was no near-term alternative to thesehighly resistant compounds. “Are you
willing to wait another 20 years for analternative, when one may not exist?”
he said.
Instead it was possible to manufacture
the compounds more safely, preventing
emissions of the molecules into theenvironment, and to dispose of products properly at the end of life, he said.
“We could have a hydrogen [industry]
today and manufacture [PFAS] responsibly,” he said.
Chemours has invested $75mn-$100mn
every year since 2018 to prevent PFAS
emissions into the air and water andwould continue that level of spending,Newman said. The company aimed toreduce emissions by 99 per cent before
2030.