PFAS in the Textile Industry – Executive Summary for Decision Makers

PFAS in the Textile Industry: Challenges, Outlook & Strategic Recommendations

The glob­al tex­tile indus­try is under­go­ing a major shift regard­ing the use of per- and poly­flu­o­roalkyl sub­stances (PFAS), par­tic­u­lar­ly around durable water repel­lents (DWRs). While PFAS have long been val­ued for their excep­tion­al water, oil, and stain repel­len­cy, increas­ing envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns and emerg­ing health data have drawn reg­u­la­to­ry atten­tion and mar­ket pres­sure world­wide.

Accord­ing to the cur­rent state of sci­ence, there are no flu­o­rine-free alter­na­tives avail­able today that can ful­ly match the per­for­mance characteristics—particularly oil repel­len­cy and durability—of con­ven­tion­al flu­o­ro­car­bon-based sys­tems. Con­se­quent­ly, a suc­cess­ful tran­si­tion requires a real­is­tic under­stand­ing of per­for­mance expec­ta­tions and a coor­di­nat­ed, tier-spe­cif­ic response across the entire val­ue chain.

To sup­port the indus­try in man­ag­ing this tran­si­tion, Gherzi rec­om­mends the fol­low­ing strate­gic mea­sures:

1. OEMs / Brand Owners

  • Inte­grate FC-free require­ments into RSLs and enforce them con­sis­tent­ly across sup­pli­er onboard­ing, audits, and mate­r­i­al approvals
  • Estab­lish trace­abil­i­ty mech­a­nisms to ensure FC-free com­pli­ance not only in prod­uct for­mu­la­tions but through­out man­u­fac­tur­ing envi­ron­ments.
  • Mit­i­gate cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion risks by imple­ment­ing clear and robust con­t­a­m­i­na­tion con­trol protocols—accounting for shared equip­ment, water sys­tems, and lab­o­ra­to­ry tools.

2. Tier 1 Suppliers (Garment Manufacturers & Finishers)

  • Invest in ded­i­cat­ed fin­ish­ing infra­struc­ture for FC-free treat­ments where eco­nom­i­cal­ly and logis­ti­cal­ly fea­si­ble.
  • Enforce strict seg­re­ga­tion of FC-free and lega­cy flu­o­ro­car­bon-based treatments—across stor­age, chem­i­cal han­dling, dos­ing, and waste­water man­age­ment.
  • Request full doc­u­men­ta­tion and third-par­ty val­i­da­tion from chem­i­cal sup­pli­ers to sup­port claims of FC-free prod­uct per­for­mance.

3. Tier 3 Suppliers (Chemical Manufacturers)

  • Pri­or­i­tize the devel­op­ment and scale-up of FC-free DWR for­mu­la­tions with full chem­i­cal trans­paren­cy and align­ment with upcom­ing glob­al reg­u­la­to­ry frame­works (e.g., EU PFAS restric­tions).
  • Chan­nel inno­va­tion into high-per­for­mance solu­tions with­in the real­is­tic bound­aries of FC-free chem­istry, with clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion of lim­i­ta­tions.
  • Col­lab­o­rate close­ly with brands and mills to test and val­i­date opti­mal appli­ca­tions for FC-free sys­tems based on spe­cif­ic use cas­es and per­for­mance demands.

Understanding Detection Limits in PFAS Analytics

In the con­text of PFAS test­ing, a sound under­stand­ing of ana­lyt­i­cal detec­tion lim­its is essen­tial for accu­rate com­pli­ance, cred­i­ble dec­la­ra­tions, and sound deci­sion-mak­ing.

  • Lim­it of Detec­tion (LOD): The low­est con­cen­tra­tion at which a sub­stance can be reli­ably iden­ti­fied.
  • Lim­it of Quan­tifi­ca­tion (LOQ): The low­est lev­el at which the con­cen­tra­tion can be mea­sured with accept­able pre­ci­sion.

Typical Detection Limits in Textile Testing:

  • Fin­ished tex­tiles: 0.1–1 µg/m² (per com­pound)
  • Water sam­ples (efflu­ent, process water): 1–10 ng/l (parts per tril­lion)

While these ultra-trace lev­els are cru­cial for safe­guard­ing health and the envi­ron­ment, they intro­duce inter­pre­ta­tion­al com­plex­i­ty.

Key Considerations for the Industry

  1. “Non-detect” does not mean “absent”

PFAS may be present below the detec­tion thresh­old. There­fore, any “PFAS-free” claim should be sup­port­ed by test details includ­ing LOD and LOQ.

  1. Cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion is a fre­quent and under­es­ti­mat­ed risk

Sources include pre­vi­ous­ly used equip­ment, shared chem­i­cal baths, poor­ly cleaned con­tain­ers, and even lab back­ground inter­fer­ence.

  1. Lab­o­ra­to­ry cred­i­bil­i­ty is essen­tial

Work exclu­sive­ly with accred­it­ed labs using val­i­dat­ed PFAS test meth­ods (e.g., LC- MS/MS), and ensure test results clear­ly report detec­tion thresh­olds.

Communicating “PFAS-Free” Status – Accuracy and Accountability

Mod­ern PFAS ana­lyt­ics enable unprece­dent­ed detec­tion sen­si­tiv­i­ty, yet this brings added respon­si­bil­i­ty in com­mu­ni­ca­tion. To cred­i­bly claim “PFAS-free” sta­tus, orga­ni­za­tions must ensure:

  • Full sup­ply chain con­trol
  • Proac­tive con­t­a­m­i­na­tion pre­ven­tion
  • Con­tin­u­ous train­ing and val­i­da­tion across all tiers

Conclusion: The PFAS Transition Is a Necessity—and an Opportunity

Mov­ing away from flu­o­ri­nat­ed DWRs is not only a reg­u­la­to­ry require­ment but also a chance to lead on sus­tain­abil­i­ty and inno­va­tion. Stake­hold­ers must align on prac­ti­cal per­for­mance expec­ta­tions, main­tain oper­a­tional dis­ci­pline, and embrace shared account­abil­i­ty across the sup­ply chain.

Gherzi supports industry players in this journey by offering:

  • Tech­ni­cal exper­tise
  • Sup­pli­er eval­u­a­tion frame­works
  • Tai­lored imple­men­ta­tion roadmaps aligned with each client’s posi­tion in the val­ue chain

Background: History, Use, and Regulation of PFAS

Per- and poly­flu­o­roalkyl sub­stances (PFAS) were first devel­oped in the late 1930s and entered com­mer­cial use in the 1940s, ini­tial­ly through prod­ucts like Teflon™ by DuPont (intro­duced 1946). Due to their unique properties—extreme chem­i­cal sta­bil­i­ty, water and oil repel­len­cy, and resis­tance to heat—PFAS quick­ly found wide­spread use across mul­ti­ple indus­tries. These include tex­tiles (for durable water repel­len­cy), fire­fight­ing foams (AFFF), food pack­ag­ing, cos­met­ics, and elec­tron­ics.

Con­cerns over PFAS began to emerge in the late 1990s when inter­nal stud­ies and envi­ron­men­tal find­ings revealed their per­sis­tence and poten­tial tox­i­c­i­ty. PFAS have been found in drink­ing water, soil, wildlife, and even human blood around the world.

Key Milestones in PFAS-Awareness and Regulation:

  • 1998 – U.S. Envi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion Agency (EPA) begins inves­ti­gat­ing PFOS (per­flu­o­rooc­tane sul­fonate) after 3M sub­mits inter­nal stud­ies.
  • 2001 – The Ten­nessean and oth­er U.S. media expose DuPont’s inter­nal knowl­edge of PFAS con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, trig­ger­ing law­suits.
  • 2005 – EPA files suit against DuPont for fail­ing to report PFAS risks (set­tled for $16.5 mil­lion).
  • 2006 – EPA launch­es the PFOA Stew­ard­ship Pro­gram with major man­u­fac­tur­ers to phase out PFOA by 2015.
  • 2016 – EPA sets a non-enforce­able Health Advi­so­ry Lev­el for PFOA and PFOS in drink­ing water (70 ppt).
  • 2019 – The Euro­pean Chem­i­cals Agency (ECHA) clas­si­fies PFAS as sub­stances of very high con­cern (SVHC).
  • 2020 – The film Dark Waters (based on real events, star­ring Mark Ruf­fa­lo) dra­mat­i­cal­ly increas­es pub­lic aware­ness of PFAS and their dan­gers.
  • 2021 – The EU announces inten­tion to restrict the entire PFAS group under REACH by 2025.
  • 2023 – Ger­many, the Nether­lands, Den­mark, Swe­den, and Nor­way sub­mit a joint restric­tion pro­pos­al to ECHA to ban over 10,000 PFAS sub­stances.
  • 2024 – The U.S. EPA final­izes enforce­able drink­ing water lim­its for six PFAS com­pounds, mark­ing a reg­u­la­to­ry turn­ing point.

Key Publications and Media Contributions:

  • 2007 – “Expo­sure” by Robert Bilott: Legal exposé of PFAS pol­lu­tion cas­es against DuPont.
  • 2016 – The Dev­il We Know (Doc­u­men­tary): Chron­i­cles the com­mu­ni­ty affect­ed by PFAS pol­lu­tion in West Vir­ginia.
  • 2019 – Dark Waters (Film): A dra­ma­tized account of attor­ney Robert Bilot­t’s two- decade legal bat­tle over PFAS.
  • 2020s – Ongo­ing aca­d­e­m­ic research: Hun­dreds of peer-reviewed stud­ies now link PFAS to can­cer, hor­mone dis­rup­tion, devel­op­men­tal issues, and immune sys­tem effects.
Dis­claimer

This infor­ma­tion bul­letin has been pre­pared by Gherzi Ger­many to the best of our knowl­edge and pro­fes­sion­al judg­ment. It is intend­ed to pro­vide gen­er­al strate­gic guid­ance for the tex­tile indus­try dur­ing the ongo­ing PFAS tran­si­tion.

How­ev­er, Gherzi Ger­many assumes no lia­bil­i­ty for busi­ness, com­mer­cial, or strate­gic deci­sions made sole­ly based on this doc­u­ment. All guid­ance pro­vid­ed here­in should be viewed as direc­tion­al sup­port and does not sub­sti­tute for a detailed, com­pa­ny-spe­cif­ic eval­u­a­tion.

More detailed assess­ments, includ­ing oper­a­tional fea­si­bil­i­ty, finan­cial impli­ca­tions, and tech­ni­cal imple­men­ta­tion, can be devel­oped with­in the frame­work of a joint project tai­lored to the respec­tive stakeholder’s role in the tex­tile sup­ply chain.

PDF, Eng­lish

PFAS in the Tex­tile Indus­try – Exec­u­tive Sum­ma­ry for Deci­sion- Mak­ers
Gherzi Ger­many Bul­letin