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Abstract Many outdoor garments are impregnated to make them water and, in some cases oil repellent, but the impregnation agents can be hazardous to human health and the environment. Some examples of such hazardous impregnation agents include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. To reduce the risks related to these fluorinated substances, a phase-out is necessary, and voluntary avoidance by consumers may be one way to make this happen. This experimental survey investigates the extent to which information about the hazardous properties of fluorinated substances affects consumer willingness-to-pay for alternative outdoor garments without hazardous chemicals. The experiment was conducted by means of a questionnaire distributed to more than 4000 Swedish respondents via the Laboratory of Opinion Research's Citizen Panel. The results show a generally high willingness-to-pay, and that the effects of providing information are higher when the price increase is high. This suggests that there is room for a price increase if the non-hazardous options are more expensive. This survey experiment indicates that the Swedish general public is ready for substitution to garments without hazardous fluorinated chemicals if the alternative provides an identical function. Information campaigns, however, will have limited ability to increase the willingness-to-pay for an alternative as it is already high. Despite the general willingness of the Swedish public to choose less hazardous options, legislative measures may potentially be the most effective action when supply chains are opaque and information to consumers is limited. Highlights • High public readiness for substitution of hazardous PFAS in outdoor garments. • Information about chemical hazards had effect on willingness-to-pay (WTP). • Room for a price increase if the non-hazardous options are more expensive. • Limited ability to increase the WTP for an alternative when WTP is already high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are used in durable water repellents (DWRs) on outdoor garments and manufacturers are currently phasing out hazardous PFASs. A critical question is: which alternatives should be chosen? The answer should depend on a holistic assessment, but the published inventory data and methodological guidance for assessing PFAS in products is slim and typically limited to hazard assessment. We aim to provide a holistic assessment of the potential environmental consequences of this phase out of DWRs, going beyond the more traditional hazard-focused substitution assessment to also include a broad life-cycle-based assessment of PFASs and their drop-in alternatives. In this study, potential environmental consequences of the phase out were evaluated by applying a life cycle assessment (LCA) to shell jackets with side-chain fluorinated polymer based (i.e., PFASs) or non-fluorinated alternative DWRs with the aim to support a substitution assessment. We demonstrated an innovative approach to impact assessment by inclusion of PFAS related fate and toxicity and invested effort towards contributing new primary inventory data by using a combination of industry dialogue and performance measurements from our larger project context. From a methodological point of view, this paper demonstrates the state-of-the-art in product LCA of persistent textile chemicals and identifies the current limits of this assessment approach. It also delivers new LCI data of use to other analysts. The LCA results in this paper suggest that jackets without PFASs are environmentally preferable. Potential problem shifting due to increased washing and reimpregnation of the jackets did not outweigh PFAS-related potential toxicity impacts as indicated by LCA results. Based on the results presented here, specific DWRs within the non-fluorinated DWR group could not be identified as preferable to others. This LCA does however provide a relevant starting point for more detailed studies on specific DWR systems and it supports moves to phase-out PFASs from non-essential DWR uses. Synopsis: In this paper life cycle assessment was applied to derive decision support for the phase out of hazardous durable water repellents in outdoor garments. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]