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58 PCB007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2024 Feature Interview by Marcy LaRont I-CONNECT007 As our industry grapples with environmental sustainability in our products and processes, per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS) naturally come up in discussion, especially as they pertain to advocacy and government regulations. Kelly Scanlon, lead sustainability strategist at IPC, provides some basic educa- tion (or re-education) around PFAS, and the discussion and activity surrounding them. is is a complicated topic area that is prone to mis- understanding and misinterpretation. In its simplest definition, PFAS is a group of chemicals used to make fluoropolymer coat- ings and products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease, and water. Fluoropolymer coatings can be in a variety of products. ough this defi- nition is not inaccurate, it can be misleading. Depending on who you ask, there are upward The Many Complexities of PFAS of 10,000 PFAS chemistries that can meet var- ious definitions. Given this lack of confluence in an agreed-upon working definition of PFAS, as well as agreement as to all the chemicals that fall under that moniker, answering questions regarding PFAS with clarity and undisputed accuracy is a challenge. Regarding PFAS, there are many regulatory activities at the local through national levels in various jurisdictions around the world. ough some of these questions may seem prosaic, the answers are not easy because all questions regarding PFAS tend to be politically fraught. IPC has engaged in policy actions related to PFAS in the U.S. and the EU. ese have been multi-year engagements, and the regulations are only slowly emerging given the complexity of the chemicals and their uses.