Forever chemicals in outdoor gear

Most outdoor gear and nearly all camping tents are made with fabrics that have been coated with durable water repellent coatings (DWRs) made with perfluorochemicals (PFCs), which are major sources of greenhouse gases. Worse, they never goes away and bioaccumulate in water supplies and in tissues of animals and people. 

Since their introduction in the 1950s, we have learned that these PFC based DWRs, like perfluorooctanoic acid, (PFOA) have been linked to numerous health problems in humans, including cancer, kidney damage and reproductive problems. PFCs and PFOAs bioaccumulate in water supplies and in the tissues of fish, birds, animals and humans. Since these chemical compounds do not biodegrade but steadily build up, they have increasing toxic effects.

Phasing out C8 DWR

The EPA has worked to phase out C8 DWR use since 2000. Its use in US manufacturing was phased out by 2015, but it could still be found in most imported products. When Greenpeace tested 40 pieces of name brand products, including Marmot, the North Face and Patagonia PFOA was “still widely present”.

By now, many in the outdoor industry have switched to the shorter chain C6 DWR, because it does not contain PFOA. Efforts to switch to even shorter chain C4 and C2 DWRs have been challenged by a lack of durable performance, especially vs. oils.

The C6 DWR Problem

Although C6 does not contain PFOA, it does contain PFCs that are linked to numerous health problems in humans, including cancer, hormone disruption and developmental delays in children.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), asked the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to investigate and study the issue of following PFCs, including PFOA. They are: perfluoro butane sulfonate (PFBS) perfluoro hexane sulfonate (PFHXS), perfluoro hexanoic acid (PFHXA), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluoro octane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluoro nonanoic acid (PFNA), perfluoro nonanoic acid (PFDA), 8+2 fluorotelomer alcohol 8:2 (FTOH)