The European Union has been tightening the rules concerning a group of chemicals – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – in recent years and is heading in the direction of a total ban.
PFAS are also known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down naturally and cannot be cleaned.
Various global authorities are looking at clamping down further on these chemicals; several are considering an outright ban.
Construction machinery manufacturers are worried. Manufacturers’ organisations from Europe, the USA, Japan, Korea, India and Australia have come together to formulate a joint response to what they regard as a threat – a threat to machine safety, a threat to durability and a threat to their businesses.
They argue that sweeping restrictions on PFAS would severely impact the industry, affecting safety, durability and even environmental compliance of construction equipment.
Their joint declaration says: “Regarding our internationally intertwined supply chains, we believe a coordinated approach to regulating PFAS across regions is needed. It has become apparent that any general restriction on PFAS will have severe repercussions over both import and export of equipment, thereby threatening the quality of the trade relationships between our regions.”
A better approach, they argue, would be for regulations to focus on high-risk PFAS, emphasising prevention of chemical release, proper waste management and recycling.
They say: “We stand for a substance-specific approach to regulating diverse PFAS as it contributes to making proportionate decisions while ensuring a level-playing field across industries. Referring to the Montreal Protocol, multiple authorities around the world are considering extending application of essential use criteria to PFAS restriction and authorisation procedures. Considering our need for legal certainty, our numerous PFAS industrial applications, to which few credible alternatives can be proposed today, should remain regulated in accordance with the principle of proportionality.
“Our construction equipment manufacturers design products to effectively operate for decades mostly in harsh and demanding environments whilst satisfying safety, environmental, regulatory, durability, quality, and customer requirements. Construction equipment manufacturers use state-of-the-art and innovative technologies to meet the challenging variety of requirements, with PFAS performing a variety of essential use functions to help achieve these goals. It is crucial to understand that without the functionality provided by certain PFAS chemicals, the future construction equipment products able to meet air quality, climate, safety, durability, waste, sustainability, and alternative power goals is imperilled.”
Government authorities are increasingly concerned about the use of these chemicals, however. The US Environmental Protection Agency says: “PFAS are widely used, long lasting chemicals, components of which break down very slowly over time.
“Because of their widespread use and their persistence in the environment, many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals all over the world and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment.
“PFAS are found in water, air, fish, and soil at locations across the nation and the globe. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals.
“There are thousands of PFAS chemicals, and they are found in many different consumer, commercial, and industrial products. This makes it challenging to study and assess the potential human health and environmental risks.”
Such concerns are shared in Europe. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) says: “Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ... are a large class of thousands of synthetic chemicals that are used throughout society. However, they are increasingly detected as environmental pollutants and some are linked to negative effects on human health.
“They all contain carbon-fluorine bonds, which are one of the strongest chemical bonds in organic chemistry. This means that they resist degradation when used and also in the environment. Most PFAS are also easily transported in the environment covering long distances away from the source of their release.
“PFAS have been frequently observed to contaminate groundwater, surface water and soil. Cleaning up polluted sites is technically difficult and costly. If releases continue, they will continue to accumulate in the environment, drinking water and food.”
Applications of PFAS in the construction equipment industry include:
- coatings and seals
- cables and hoses
- hydraulic systems (PFAS is an additive in hydraulic fluids and lubricants)
- refrigerants (the industry uses two PFAS substances, HFC-134a and HFO-1234yf, in air conditioning systems)
- alternative power technologies (PFAS provides the functional properties that are essential for many new alternative power technologies, including batteries and hydrogen fuel cells).
Seeking to head off an outright ban, the construction machinery manufacturers argue that their products are designed to operate with exceptionally long lifetimes and end-of-life provisions such as re-use and recycling to ensure waste products do not find their way into landfills, watercourses or the atmosphere.
“Our equipment is designed to ensure products are responsibly remanufactured following their useful life, and that used oil and fluid wastes are properly captured and recycled. These widespread industry practices fulfil circular economy principles and prevent releases of unwanted pollutants to the environment,” says the joint declaration.
The co-signatories also call for harmonised global definitions, sufficient transition periods, and specific exemptions to support their industry’s sustainability and innovation.
“Our industry fully supports proportionate laws and regulations that mitigate hazards from the high-risk sources of PFAS pollution. We thus extend to our respective regions’ authorities the following recommendations:
- Prioritise future regulatory efforts on high-risk PFAS chemicals and end-use applications.
- Focus regulatory efforts on PFAS chemical release prevention, waste disposal, material handling, recycling, and environmental remediation as opposed to broad prohibitions.
- When defining PFAS, adopt a single worldwide harmonised list of PFAS.
- When restricting PFAS, adopt substance-specific measures based on the principle of proportionality instead of essential use criteria.
- Provide ample transition periods for OEMs to adapt to new regulatory requirements.
- Provide specific exemptions to aftermarket parts to foster circularity.
- Collaborate with industry stakeholders along the supply chains.
“Ultimately, construction equipment manufacturers are committed to addressing these issues by serving as a catalyst for innovation and working to engage with policymakers and civil society on our viewpoints and solutions to these important questions.”
United they stand
Signatories to the joint declaration represent manufacturers from all the major producer countries with the exception of China. They are:
USA:
Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM)
Australia:
Construction Mining Equipment Industry Group (CMEIG)
Europe:
Committee for European Construction Equipment (CECE)
India:
Indian Construction Equipment Association (ICEMA)
Japan:
Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA)
Korea:
Korea Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association (KOCEMA)
Another ozone hole?
The current furore over PAFS is just the latest chapter in a story that began in the early 1980s with the discovery of a hole in the atmospheric ozone layer above the Antarctic.
The culprit, according to scientists, were the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) used in aerosol cans and refrigeration. Concern grew rapidly, culminating in 1987 with the landmark Montreal Protocol, a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances.
In 1994 the three scientists who identified the role of CFCs in ozone depletion – Sherwood Rowland, Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen – were awarded a Nobel Prize for their research.
Despite resistance from industry, CFCs were gradually phased out and by the early 2000s the production and use of CFCs was halted. Nearly all of the chemicals agreed to in the Montreal Protocol were phased out by 2009.
Since then, a series of amendments to the protocol has led to ever tighter restrictions on chemicals which were introduced to replace CFCs, namely the hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). These chemicals, though not ozone-depleting, are extremely powerful greenhouse gases.
In 2013 scientists provided evidence that the phase-out of CFCs was working and that the hole in the ozone layer was healing. But by now, the concern had switched away from ozone depletion to global warming – and the most commonly used HCFCs had a global warming potential almost 2,000 times that of carbon dioxide.
PFAS are a completely different class of chemical, representing a different threat to human health and the environment.
But given the global response to the use of CFCs and their substitutes, the clock is ticking for a ban on PFAS.
Got a story? Email news@theconstructionindex.co.uk
