PFAS & Parts Obsolescence: Act Now to Avoid Disruptions

Your ability to design products that buyers trust means understanding how regulatory restrictions on PFAS “forever chemicals” are triggering PFAS obsolescence risks for critical parts in your supply chains. To keep your goods on the market, you need visibility into which parts contain PFAS and which processes rely on PFAS chemicals. 

In this article, our team of PFAS experts discuss the impacts of chemical manufacturers pulling out of the PFAS market and the strategies you need to protect your bottom line. 

Why Are Suppliers Removing PFAS From Their Supply Chains? 

Major global manufacturers are moving away from PFAS manufacturing because of growing pressure from investors, regulations, and litigation. 

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances can withstand heat, moisture, and chemical exposure; repel water, oil, and grease; and reduce friction. This makes them useful in coatings, lubricants, sealants, and electronics. It also makes them hard to manage from an environmental and health perspective. Many PFAS are highly persistent, meaning they do not readily break down in the environment, and accumulate in people and drinking water.

The pressure on PFAS manufacturing is growing:

• Lawsuits alleging PFAS contamination are becoming more common, targeting not only chemical manufacturers but also downstream companies that use PFAS in their products or processes. State attorneys general are also investigating companies that make “PFAS-free” claims.
• The Investor Initiative on Hazardous Chemicals (IIHC), a coalition of 70+ investors managing $18 trillion, has put pressure on manufacturers to remove PFAS from the supply chain. 
• PFAS risk is becoming an insurance issue. Many carriers are adding PFAS-specific exclusions or relying on pollution exclusions in commercial liability policies.
• Numerous U.S. states have introduced PFAS restrictions and reporting requirements.

Together, these pressures are pushing major suppliers to phase out materials containing PFAS, and reformulate or discontinue affected products. In December 2025, 3M, one of the world’s largest manufacturers, completed its exit of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) manufacturing, resulting in the reformulation or discontinuation of thousands of products manufactured with or containing forever chemicals. In addition to 3M, many other notable companies, such as BASF, Ecolab, and Clariant, are moving away from PFAS manufacturing.

For your business, those supplier-side changes can cause parts obsolescence. Components, materials, or inputs that once met performance and compliance requirements may no longer be available. If this happens, you’ll need to identify alternatives, requalify materials, and update your product designs. This can sometimes take years to accomplish. 

That’s why you need to know what’s in your parts right now and whether you’re buying PFAS-dependent products that are about to be permanently retired. Assent’s PFAS solution is the most effective way to audit your supply chain for PFAS. You get unmatched visibility into which parts contain PFAS, whether you’re buying products that are going obsolete, and how your suppliers plan on maintaining business continuity. 

What Does Part Obsolescence Mean for Manufacturers?

As suppliers remove PFAS from their offerings, you’ll need to make tough decisions, fast. You’ll likely find yourself in one or more of these three scenarios:

1. Competing for Scarce PFAS-Free Parts

As PFAS disappears from the market, the demand for PFAS-free alternatives is ramping up. By knowing early if a critical part is at risk, you can avoid the scramble to secure parts that can cause higher prices and production delays. Assent gives you proactive PFAS visibility so you can make informed decisions before your competitors even realize they need to find alternatives.

2. Equipment Changes

If you rely on PFAS-based materials in your maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) supplies, it will get harder to keep your production lines running. PFAS-free materials may not meet the same performance standards or have the same form, fit, or function. In some cases, you may need to make last-time buys or invest in new machinery. Capital expenses and overhauling your processes can be costly, so it’s worth it to invest in PFAS planning. 

3. Rethinking Your Product From the Inside Out

If a part embedded in your product becomes obsolete and no replacement meets performance or safety standards, your only options may be an early end-of-life or a full redesign.  

But here’s the good news: Start now and turn disruption into your advantage. By designing PFAS-free products ahead of your competitors, you don’t just get early access to new PFAS-free supply sources and lab testing time. PFAS-free products will also help you maintain your market access in a rapidly changing regulatory environment, keep your customers happy, and position your business as a leader in sustainable innovation.

When you’re proactive about PFAS and use the Assent Sustainability Platform, you’ll easily get the product compliance data you need to recertify for market access requirements like EU REACH or California Proposition 65. 

How Assent Helps

When you’re dealing with hundreds or thousands of parts, overlapping regulations, and incomplete data, PFAS risks are hard to spot and even harder to manage. With Assent, you get regulatory support from our PFAS experts and the leading supply chain data platform, giving you the power to stay ahead of PFAS obsolescence risks and all the trickle-down disruptions on your productivity. 

We’ve already collected millions of PFAS declarations from global supply chains. To date, Assent customers routinely find that upwards of 5% of their parts contain at least one PFAS chemical. By using our platform, manufacturers are able to satisfy expanding reporting requirements plus flag the parts that could go obsolete unexpectedly. 

Our AI-enhanced Assent Sustainability Platform streamlines supplier engagement so you can get data on PFAS usage faster and with much less effort. We also take your program further with our extended PFAS information survey that helps you get critical supply chain data that other solutions can’t:

• Discover if a PFAS in your supply chain is intentionally added
• Improve your ability to plan ahead or find replacements by collecting data on the specific function of PFAS in your parts
• Survey on the exact reporting concentration range or total organofluorine (TOF) testing value
• Due diligence information on how the supplier obtained the reported PFAS concentration

When you use Assent’s extended information survey, you have data insights to uncover the risk around PFAS parts obsolescence, leading to more time to find the right alternatives. 

And when it is time to act, we give you a clear path forward. Whether it’s updating compliance declarations, responding to customer PFAS requests, understanding the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), or ensuring compliance with the latest PFAS restrictions, our supply chain software gives you the trustworthy data you need. 

Try out our interactive PFAS software demo for yourself here.

Ready to get ahead of PFAS risks in your supply chain? Book time with one of our PFAS experts to get a tailored demo today.