Jaime Sales

International Chemical Regulatory and Law Review, Volume 7 (2024), Issue 1, Page 2 - 6

The European Union has developed an ambitious plan to become the first climate-neutral continent in the world. The European Green deal lays out a set of policy actions aimed at achieving such goal. However, while the validity of the final aspiration is unquestionable, a full deployment of all the foreseen activities could have a boomerang effect that may prevent from such objective being achieved. Initiatives such as the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability foresee the ban or limitation of uses of chemicals that are critical not only to ensure the green transition in Europe, but also for highly technological sectors for which Europe intends to obtain market independence from other regions. Together with the full development of the REACH Regulation (authorisation and restriction processes), the self-assigned leadership of the EU in the control of chemicals may result in increased uncertainty for investments (certainly not alleviated by the introduction of the essential use concept) that could move to other continents. While Europe continues to place the regulatory focus on chemical hazard instead of adequate control of risk, an adequate balance between protection of safety and the environment and an adequate functioning of society will be hard to achieve.

Jaime Sales, Michael Schlipf, Deepak Kapoor

International Chemical Regulatory and Law Review, Volume 6 (2023), Issue 1, Page 29 - 36

In the context of the upcoming restriction of PFAS, there appears to be significant confusion concerning the most relevant sectors where fluoropolymers are used. This paper intends to clarify that fluoropolymers are used mainly in industrial sectors of high value to society. The outstanding combination of properties that fluoropolymers exhibit makes them extremely valuable materials in a wide variety of applications. While there have been some historic uses in consumer applications, these uses are currently anecdotic, particularly for those linked to very dispersive uses (which excludes use in cookware), and represent a minute proportion of the overall uses when compared to industrial applications, where fluoropolymers’ outstanding properties are capitalized on. Fluoropolymers contribute decisively to the progress and well-being of society in five key areas: safety & well-being, environment and circularity, decarbonization, performance and comfort, being the latter the only one that can be attributed to dispersive consumer applications.

Jaime Sales, Francisco Hernández, Deepak Kapoor, Marcel van den Noort

International Chemical Regulatory and Law Review, Volume 5 (2022), Issue 1, Page 13 - 23

Fluoropolymers are high value chemicals that provide a wide variety of properties in key industrial sectors. These chemicals are indispensable to guarantee the adequate functioning of modern society, with key contributions in safety, decarbonization, and high-tech development. Due to their chemical composition and structure, fluoropolymers match the definition of the PFAS group of substances. However, this definition was originally not intended for regulatory purposes. Indeed, this group of substances is currently under heavy pressure due to the fact that some other chemicals in the group have raised environmental concerns in the past. However, fluoropolymers show clearly differentiated properties from other PFAS, and the vast majority of these polymers have been identified as matching the definition of Polymer of Low Concern. Fluoropolymers are not expected to degrade during normal use or at their end of life, and the main concerns related to their manufacture are being successfully addressed by industry, with innovative developments in both safer designs and improvement of abatement techniques to control emissions.

Jaime Sales, Dieter Drohmann

International Chemical Regulatory and Law Review, Volume 4 (2021), Issue 1, Page 26 - 33

Nicia Mourão, Jaime Sales

International Chemical Regulatory and Law Review, Volume 3 (2020), Issue 1, Page 36 - 42

Jaime Sales, Agustín Harte

International Chemical Regulatory and Law Review, Volume 2 (2019), Issue 3, Page 114 - 119