Juliane Glüge

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Glüge

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Juliane

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0000-0003-1997-2750

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Publications 1 - 10 of 25

Are Fluoropolymers Really of Low Concern for Human and Environmental Health and Separate from Other PFAS?
Lohmann, Rainer; Cousins, Ian T.; DeWitt, Jamie C.; et al. (2020)
Environmental Science & Technology
Fluoropolymers are a group of polymers within the class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The objective of this analysis is to evaluate the evidence regarding the environmental and human health impacts of fluoropolymers throughout their life cycle(s). Production of some fluoropolymers is intimately linked to the use and emissions of legacy and novel PFAS as polymer processing aids. There are serious concerns regarding the toxicity and adverse effects of fluorinated processing aids on humans and the environment. A variety of other PFAS, including monomers and oligomers, are emitted during the production, processing, use, and end-of-life treatment of fluoropolymers. There are further concerns regarding the safe disposal of fluoropolymers and their associated products and articles at the end of their life cycle. While recycling and reuse of fluoropolymers is performed on some industrial waste, there are only limited options for their recycling from consumer articles. The evidence reviewed in this analysis does not find a scientific rationale for concluding that fluoropolymers are of low concern for environmental and human health. Given fluoropolymers’ extreme persistence; emissions associated with their production, use, and disposal; and a high likelihood for human exposure to PFAS, their production and uses should be curtailed except in cases of essential uses.
Global production, use, and emission volumes of short-chain chlorinated paraffins – A minimum scenario
Glüge, Juliane; Wang, Zhanyun; Bogdal, Christian; et al. (2016)
Science of The Total Environment
Short-chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) show high persistence, bioaccumulation potential, and toxicity (PBT properties). Consequently, restrictions on production and use have been enforced in several countries/regions. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants recognized the PBT properties and long-range transport potential of SCCPs in 2015 and is now evaluating a possible global phase-out or restrictions. In this context, it is relevant to know which countries are producing/using SCCPs and in which amounts, and which applications contribute most to their environmental emissions. To provide a first comprehensive overview, we review and integrate all publicly available data on the global production and use of both chlorinated paraffins (CPs) as a whole and specifically SCCPs. Considerable amount of data on production/use of CPs and SCCPs are missing. Based on the available data and reported emission factors, we estimate the past and current worldwide SCCP emissions from individual applications. Using the available data as a minimum scenario, we conclude: (i) SCCP production and use is increasing, with the current worldwide production volume being 165,000 t/year at least, whereas the global production of total CPs exceeds 1 million t/year. (ii) The worldwide release of SCCPs from their production and use to air, surface water, and soil between 1935 and 2012 has been in the range of 1690–41,400 t, 1660–105,000 t, and 9460–81,000 t, respectively. (iii) The SCCP manufacture and use in PVC, the use in metal working applications and sealants/adhesives, and the use in plastics and rubber contribute most to the emissions to air, surface water, and soil. Thus, the decrease in the environmental emissions of SCCPs requires reduction of SCCP use in (almost) all applications. (iv) Emissions due to the disposal of waste SCCPs cannot be accurately estimated, because relevant information is missing. Instead, we conduct a scenario analysis to provide some insights into it.
Zurich II Statement on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs): Scientific and Regulatory Needs
DeWitt, Jamie C.; Glüge, Juliane; Cousins, Ian T.; et al. (2024)
Environmental Science & Technology Letters
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of synthetic organic chemicals of global concern. A group of 36 scientists and regulators from 18 countries held a hybrid workshop in 2022 in Zurich, Switzerland. The workshop, a sequel to a previous Zurich workshop held in 2017, deliberated on progress in the last five years and discussed further needs for cooperative scientific research and regulatory action on PFASs. This review reflects discussion and insights gained during and after this workshop and summarizes key signs of progress in science and policy, ongoing critical issues to be addressed, and possible ways forward. Some key take home messages include: 1) understanding of human health effects continues to develop dramatically, 2) regulatory guidelines continue to drop, 3) better understanding of emissions and contamination levels is needed in more parts of the world, 4) analytical methods, while improving, still only cover around 50 PFASs, and 5) discussions of how to group PFASs for regulation (including subgroupings) have gathered momentum with several jurisdictions proposing restricting a large proportion of PFAS uses. It was concluded that more multi-group exchanges are needed in the future and that there should be a greater diversity of participants at future workshops.
An overview of the uses of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
Glüge, Juliane; Scheringer, Martin; Cousins, Ian T.; et al. (2020)
Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are of concern because of their high persistence (or that of their degradation products) and their impacts on human and environmental health that are known or can be deduced from some well-studied PFAS. Currently, many different PFAS (on the order of several thousands) are used in a wide range of applications, and there is no comprehensive source of information on the many individual substances and their functions in different applications. Here we provide a broad overview of many use categories where PFAS have been employed and for which function; we also specify which PFAS have been used and discuss the magnitude of the uses. Despite being non-exhaustive, our study clearly demonstrates that PFAS are used in almost all industry branches and many consumer products. In total, more than 200 use categories and subcategories are identified for more than 1400 individual PFAS. In addition to well-known categories such as textile impregnation, fire-fighting foam, and electroplating, the identified use categories also include many categories not described in the scientific literature, including PFAS in ammunition, climbing ropes, guitar strings, artificial turf, and soil remediation. We further discuss several use categories that may be prioritised for finding PFAS-free alternatives. Besides the detailed description of use categories, the present study also provides a list of the identified PFAS per use category, including their exact masses for future analytical studies aiming to identify additional PFAS.
Evaluation of Physicochemical Property Data in the ECHA Database
Glüge, Juliane; Scheringer, Martin (2023)
Journal of physical and chemical reference data
The database of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is one of the most important databases that contains physicochemical properties, also because these data are used for the regulation of chemicals in the European Economic Area. The present study investigates the availability and quality of the data in the ECHA database for the logarithmic octanol–water partition coefficient (log₁₀ K_OW), solubility in water (S_W), vapor pressure (p_V), air–water partition coefficient, boiling point (T_b), second-order rate constant for the degradation with OH radicals, and the soil adsorption coefficient. For the evaluation of the data, calculations were run with COSMOtherm for the majority of the mono-constituent, neutral organic substances that are fully registered under the EU Regulation on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). The COSMOtherm data were evaluated against data from the PHYSPROP database, a manually curated database of experimental property data, to ensure that the COSMOtherm data were free of systematic errors. The comparison between COSMOtherm and the experimental data in the ECHA database showed that the data agree (within some variability) for many of the endpoints. However, there are also certain ranges with substantial discrepancies. These include log₁₀ K_OW > 8, S_W < 10⁻³ mg/l, p_V < 10⁻⁶ Pa, and T_b > 400 °C. The deviations between the non-experimental data and the COSMOtherm values are for all endpoints on average higher than the deviations between the experimental data and the COSMOtherm values. With this study, we provide COSMOtherm data for more than 4400 substances that can be used in the future for the hazard and risk assessment of these chemicals.
Information Requirements under the Essential-Use Concept: PFAS Case Studies
Glüge, Juliane; London, Rachel; Cousins, Ian T.; et al. (2022)
Environmental Science & Technology
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of substances for which there are widespread concerns about their extreme persistence in combination with toxic effects. It has been argued that PFAS should only be employed in those uses that are necessary for health or safety or are critical for the functioning of society and where no alternatives are available (“essential-use concept”). Implementing the essential-use concept requires a sufficient understanding of the current uses of PFAS and of the availability, suitability, and hazardous properties of alternatives. To illustrate the information requirements under the essential-use concept, we investigate seven different PFAS uses, three in consumer products and four industrial applications. We investigate how much information is available on the types and functions of PFAS in these uses, how much information is available on alternatives, their performance and hazardous properties and, finally, whether this information is sufficient as a basis for deciding on the essentiality of a PFAS use. The results show (i) the uses of PFAS are highly diverse and information on alternatives is often limited or lacking; (ii) PFAS in consumer products often are relatively easy to replace; (iii) PFAS uses in industrial processes can be highly complex and a thorough evaluation of the technical function of each PFAS and of the suitability of alternatives is needed; (iv) more coordination among PFAS manufacturers, manufacturers of alternatives to PFAS, users of these materials, government authorities, and other stakeholders is needed to make the process of phasing out PFAS more transparent and coherent.
Correspondence on "The Stockholm Convention at a Crossroads: Questionable Nominations and Inadequate Compliance Threaten Its Acceptance and Utility"
Scheringer, Martin; Ashta, Narain; Diamond, Miriam L.; et al. (2025)
Environmental Science & Technology
The Global Threat from the Irreversible Accumulation of Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA)
Arp, Hans Peter H.; Gredelj, Andrea; Glüge, Juliane; et al. (2024)
Environmental Science & Technology
Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is a persistent and mobile substance that has been increasing in concentration within diverse environmental media, including rain, soils, human serum, plants, plant-based foods, and drinking water. Currently, TFA concentrations are orders of magnitude higher than those of other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This accumulation is due to many PFAS having TFA as a transformation product, including several fluorinated gases (F-gases), pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and industrial chemicals, in addition to direct release of industrially produced TFA. Due to TFA's extreme persistence and ongoing emissions, concentrations are increasing irreversibly. What remains less clear are the thresholds where irreversible effects on local or global scales occur. There are indications from mammalian toxicity studies that TFA is toxic to reproduction and that it exhibits liver toxicity. Ecotoxicity data are scarce, with most data being for aquatic systems; fewer data are available for terrestrial plants, where TFA bioaccumulates most readily. Collectively, these trends imply that TFA meets the criteria of a planetary boundary threat for novel entities because of increasing planetary-scale exposure, where potential irreversible disruptive impacts on vital earth system processes could occur. The rational response to this is to instigate binding actions to reduce the emissions of TFA and its many precursors.
Strategies for grouping per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to protect human and environmental health
Cousins, Ian T.; DeWitt, Jamie C.; Glüge, Juliane; et al. (2020)
Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts
Grouping strategies are needed for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in part, because it would be time and resource intensive to test and evaluate the more than 4700 PFAS on the global market on a chemical-by-chemical basis. In this paper we review various grouping strategies that could be used to inform actions on these chemicals and outline the motivations, advantages and disadvantages for each. Grouping strategies are subdivided into (1) those based on the intrinsic properties of the PFAS (e.g.persistence, bioaccumulation potential, toxicity, mobility, molecular size) and (2) those that inform risk assessment through estimation of cumulative exposure and/or effects. The most precautionary grouping approach of those reviewed within this article suggests phasing out PFAS based on their high persistence alone (the so-called "P-sufficient" approach). The least precautionary grouping approach reviewed advocates only grouping PFAS for risk assessment that have the same toxicological effects, modes and mechanisms of action, and elimination kinetics, which would need to be well documented across different PFAS. It is recognised that, given jurisdictional differences in chemical assessment philosophies and methodologies, no one strategy will be generally acceptable. The guiding question we apply to the reviewed grouping strategies is: grouping for what purpose? The motivation behind the grouping (e.g.determining use in productsvs.setting guideline levels for contaminated environments) may lead to different grouping decisions. This assessment provides the necessary context for grouping strategies such that they can be adopted as they are, or built on further, to protect human and environmental health from potential PFAS-related effects.
Obstacles in Finding New POPs: Bioaccumulation and Toxicity
Andrade, Helena; Glüge, Juliane; Scheringer, Martin (2019)

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