I used to work with Pfas, but they do need to be banned

Waste containing Pfas being tested at a lab in Antwerp, Belgium. Photograph: David Pintens/Belga/AFP/Getty Images

I was delightfully unsurprised to read your report (Chemical companies lobbying MPs not to ban Pfas, 29 August). Pfas really are a bigger problem than most people realise. I must confess to some involvement here: in the 1970s, when working for a big US corporation, I used Pfa-based chemicals in a widely used recipe for food-can sealants. On reflection, I needn’t have done, but the chemical company rep was very generous with samples and lunch, and there was never any suggestion that they might be harmful.

Now, after decades of practising the greenest chemistry I can, I know for sure that Pfas are entirely unnecessary; I have yet to find them particularly better or more economic in any of the many recipes for everyday useful stuff that I have worked on. Let’s align with the EU and ban them, for the sake of future generations.
Alan Smith
Chief scientist, Paragon Resources UK