“PFC-based chemical technology [currently used in most outdoor waterproof garments] causes pollution that is persistent and cancer inducing” says Brown, “PFCs can be found in the environment worldwide, including in Arctic snow, and at incredibly low concentrations have been shown to be potentially dangerous for humans”.
The stories featured concerned Gore and Greenpeace. The first announcement from W L Gore & Associates communicated its plan to invest $15m over the next five years to explore alternative durable water repellent [DWR] solutions. The brand’s goal being to deliver new solutions with an improved environmental profile while still providing durable comfort at or above the performance level of today’s best DWR.
Not impossible says Nikwax. PFC-free Nikwax Hydrophobic Down, for example, can compete with the best PFC-based water repellent treatments for down on IDFL’s water shake test. Páramo [which uses Nikwax fabric technologies] is PFC-free, and is successfully used by mountain rescue teams and the British Antarctic Survey. Big brands like Adidas and Jack Wolfskin have advanced programs in terms of PFC removal, which will come live before 2020. And the high street giant, H&M adopted a PFC-free policy quite some time ago.
The second story appeared in the Financial Times. It carried the feature based on the research carried out by Greenpeace that called for outdoor apparel manufacturers to eliminate PFCs in the production process. Entitled “Footprints in the snow: hazardous PFCs in remote locations around the globe” it identified traces of these persistent chemicals in snow and water samples taken from high altitude locations worldwide.
“I am delighted that, finally, my anti-PFC position is now being vindicated,” says Brown, “I made absolutely the right choice not to use PFCs in the beginning. The race is now on to be PFC-free”.
For more information on Nikwax and PFCs visit the Nikwax Website.
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