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PFAS are forever : regulating chronic toxicity in our living environment
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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
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Josephine VAN ZEBEN and Chris HILSON (eds), A research agenda for environmental law, Cheltenham ; Northampton : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, pp. 189-203
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VAN ZEBEN, Josephine, PFAS are forever : regulating chronic toxicity in our living environment, in Josephine VAN ZEBEN and Chris HILSON (eds), A research agenda for environmental law, Cheltenham ; Northampton : Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025, pp. 189-203 - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/78110
Abstract
The anthropocentric production and use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (‘PFAS’) has profound, increasingly visible, and permanent impacts on our living environment. The extreme persistence, mobility, and toxicity of PFAS have created widespread cross-media contamination with extreme adverse effects on human and non-human lifeforms. While these effects are ubiquitous, they disproportionately affect certain groups of people and ecosystems, raising environmental justice concerns. Remediation of PFAS pollution, if possible, tends to be highly complex and very costly, while toxicity persists and accumulates. Most jurisdictions have only reactively regulated these substances, relying on liability mechanisms to address potential harms. Given the severity and irreversibility of PFAS pollution, environmental law may need to rely more heavily on, or develop new, preventative strategies with respect to chronic toxicity.
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Published online: 11 February 2025