Webinar: Poly- And Perfluoroalkylated Substances (PFAS): The Gathering Storm For Chemical Regulatory Professionals, And The Industry

PFAS are a group of synthetic organofluorine chemicals that have been widely used in consumer and industrial applications since the 1940s. Often termed ‘forever chemicals’ because of their persistence; their stability and environmental mobility has resulted in widespread environmental contamination.

Scientific understanding of the risks and challenges in managing PFAS has grown significantly, with some PFAS now associated with serious health impacts.  Media interest and public awareness is growing, because of cases associated with significant contamination of drinking water sources and impacts on human health. 

Even if sources of PFAS getting into the environment are stopped, environmental concentrations will decline slowly, and the legacy of contamination is challenging to remediate.

The regulatory landscape is changing rapidly, and internationally there is a movement towards significantly tighter management and restriction of PFAS and lower regulatory environmental thresholds for a wide range of PFAS.

In particular participants will:

• Look at definitions of PFAS, common terminology, nature of use
• Describe some of the challenges faced – why are we all talking about PFAS?
• Examine some of the evidence around environmental contamination by PFAS
• Look at the regulatory landscape, with a focus on Europe and the UK

Who should attend?

This webinar is designed for a wide audience.  It will be of interest to anyone who wishes to gain a high-level understanding of the risks and challenges posed from this large and diverse group of chemicals.

Dr Emma Pemberton, Principal Environmental Chemist/Ecotoxicologist for Ricardo Energy and Environment.

Dr Emma Pemberton is a  Chartered Chemist (CChem) and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Emma gained her PhD in environmental organic geochemistry and ecotoxicology with the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory.

Before joining Ricardo, Emma was a technical expert on chemical risk in the Environment Agency for over 20 years’, providing specialist knowledge and technical leadership on the environmental fate, behaviour and ecotoxicological impacts of chemicals across the business.

Most recently, Emma was the evidence acquisition lead for the Environment Agency’s PFAS working group, identifying and prioritising evidence gaps and research needs for the development a UK based PFAS action plan.  She researched and wrote a narrative synthesis of UK environmental monitoring data which evaluated and presented the current evidence base for UK sources, pathways, and environmental levels.

Since joining Ricardo’s Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology team in June 2021, Emma has worked  on a variety of projects including a gap analysis of pesticide legislation, evaluation of data used for PBT/vPvB assessment under REACH and evaluation of the risk to drinking water sources from emerging contaminants such as persistent, mobile and toxic (PMT) chemicals and organophosphate flame retardants.

Registration
The webinar is free of charge for members of CHCS: please click on the REGISTER button on this web page. 

You will receive an email of confirmation and then an email from GoToWebinar explaining how to join the event on the day.

We are also pleased to offer the webinar free-of-charge to members of BADGP and SCHC (click on the links to see how to register).

If you are interested in attending, but not a member of these organisations, you can JOIN CHCS and then register, free-of-charge. Further webinars on a variety of topics are also being planned.