The list of companies telling legislators to ban PFAS is growing!
Stadium, Sweden’s largest sports chain, and cosmetic brand IDUN Minerals are now joining H&M, Kingfisher and more in ChemSec’s corporate PFAS movement.
The movement was initiated by the NGO ChemSec to give a collective voice to all companies out there that says no to PFAS and want to see legislative action for this group of toxic chemicals.
“At ChemSec we recognize that citizens and public interest groups are not the only voices needed in the debate about toxic PFAS chemicals – businesses are equally important! And we know for a fact that many companies have a strong dedication to move away from PFAS in products and supply chains”, says Anne-Sofie Bäckar, Executive Director at ChemSec.
Catrine Marchall, Sustainability Manager at Stadium, says:
“At Stadium, we recognize the problem with PFAS chemicals since many years back and we have taken some important steps in this matter. Since 2018 all our clothes and shoes produced in-house have been free from PFAS, tents and bags since 2019. We have clarified our position around a more sustainable product range to all our external suppliers with a goal to have a 100% PFAS-free product range by latest 2023”.
Caroline Thunstedt, Sales & RD&E Director at IDUN Minerals, says:
”For us at IDUN Minerals, clean and pure ingredients have always been the primary focus. Not only because we want our products to suit sensitive skin but also because we want to use the best ingredients from an environmental perspective and minimize our carbon footprint. There is a wide selection of ingredients on the market, most of them are better choices than PFAS and hence we don’t see any reason why anyone would include it in their cosmetics. We hope that this will inspire other brands to do a more selective choice when it comes to ingredients and always keep our planet in focus”.
The PFAS challenge
One of the challenges with PFAS is that, with very few exceptions, they are perfectly legal to use. This means that the brands and retailers who want to stop them from being used as ingredients in their products have very limited ways of communicating this in the global supply chain. As long as there is not a restriction in place, suppliers will continue to use these chemicals in manufacturing.
Change will not come easy – as there are enormous amount of money in the production of PFAS it will require policy makers to take some uncomfortable decisions to restrict the whole group. By joining ChemSec’s movement, companies show policy makers that they support this and also have very advanced strategies to limit their use of PFAS.
ChemSec’s corporate PFAS movement includes:
- A call on policy makers to regulate PFAS efficiently, without the possibility for manufacturers to simply swap one PFAS chemical for an unregulated “cousin”.
- A call on the chemical industry to put money into innovation and develop safer alternatives to PFAS for all kinds of products.
- A recognition that PFAS are a major health and environmental problem.
- A commitment to end all non-essential PFAS uses in products and supply chains.
- A call on all other brands to join this movement and work towards a phase-out of PFAS in all kinds of consumer products.
Read more: chemsec.org/pfas
