From PFAS Pressure to Practical Substitution: Best Practices, Evidence Workflows and Safer Alternatives

PFAS substitution is rapidly becoming a practical priority for companies facing evolving regulatory requirements, customer expectations, litigation risk and growing demands for safer and more sustainable products. Yet removing a PFAS from a formulation is only the beginning. The greater challenge is identifying alternatives that maintain technical performance while avoiding regrettable substitution, hidden lifecycle impacts and future regulatory liabilities.

This SaferWorldbyDesign webinar will focus on the practical application of evidence-based substitution. It will present best practices, methods and solution approaches for structuring PFAS substitution projects from initial problem formulation through alternative identification, comparative assessment, decision-making and implementation.

Participants will be introduced to integrated workflows that bring together chemical hazard, exposure and toxicokinetic information, product performance, lifecycle and sustainability considerations, regulatory requirements and business constraints. The webinar will also examine how FAIR data, computational methods, New Approach Methodologies, mechanistic evidence and transparent AI-assisted workflows can support more efficient and defensible decisions while maintaining expert judgement and human oversight. Practical case-study examples will illustrate how candidate alternatives can be screened, compared and prioritised; how evidence gaps and uncertainties can be made explicit; and how decisions can be documented in a reproducible form that supports communication with scientists, engineers, customers, auditors and regulators.

The central message is that successful PFAS substitution is not simply a chemical replacement exercise. It is a structured innovation and decision process. By applying Safe and Sustainable by Design principles early, organisations can reduce risk, accelerate product development and turn regulatory pressure into an opportunity for safer innovation and long-term competitive advantage.

SSbD outlook: Environmental Assessment Elements of SSbD applied to PFAS substitution: The environmental and ecotoxicological dimensions of Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) are particularly important for PFAS substitution because replacing a hazardous substance does not necessarily result in a safer or more sustainable solution. Candidate alternatives should therefore be assessed across their lifecycle, considering environmental release and exposure, persistence, mobility, bioaccumulation and relevant ecotoxicological effects alongside human health, technical performance and sustainability criteria. A tiered, evidence-based approach can combine existing hazard and exposure information with computational methods, New Approach Methodologies and targeted ecotoxicity testing, progressing to more detailed assessment where uncertainties or potential concerns remain. This helps avoid regrettable substitution by identifying environmental trade-offs and evidence gaps early, comparing alternatives within their intended Context of Use, and documenting the evidence and uncertainties supporting the final decision. In this way, SSbD shifts PFAS substitution from simply replacing one chemical with another towards selecting and designing alternatives that deliver the required functionality while reducing environmental impacts and potential future liabilities across the product lifecycle.

Speakers: 

Barry Hardy (Edelweiss Connect)

Dr. Barry Hardy is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Edelweiss Connect, where he is leading its team supporting the development of new integrating solutions in industrial product design and safety assessment and the translation of research methods to industrial practice. Recent commercial developments include the creation of the SaferWorldbyDesign platform (https://www.saferworldbydesign.com/), and the development of the SaferSkin (https://saferworldbydesign.com/saferskin/) and EdelweissData products (https://saferworldbydesign.com/edelweissdata/). He is currently leading the development of risk assessment knowledge infrastructure and solutions, including new approach methods, SaferbyDesign, sustainability, and next-generation risk assessment solutions (https://www.risk-hunt3r.eu).

Emmanuel Maillard (Edelweiss Connect)

I currently serve as Chief Environmental Assessment Officer at Edelweiss Connect GmbH, a Swiss company developing innovative solutions and knowledge infrastructures for human and environmental safety assessment, New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD), and next-generation risk assessment. Throughout my career, I have worked across research organizations, consulting firms, testing laboratories, technology centres and industry-facing environments, contributing to projects spanning ecotoxicity, biodegradability, environmental risk assessment, life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) on cosmetics, detergents, pharmaceuticals, pesticides or plastics.