Finding a Needle in a Haystack

PFAS (“forever chemicals”) are deeply embedded in supply chains due to their durability, heat resistance, and water-repellent properties. With regulations rapidly evolving across Europe, Canada, and individual U.S. states, companies face growing pressure to identify PFAS in their products and materials, mitigate risks, and maintain business continuity.

During our recent exclusive webinar with eight leading enterprises, EcoPulse CEO Jenny Yu introduced and showcased PFAS AI software. Our guest speaker, Rob Somers, Senior Director of Global EHS at Perrigo, shared his candid perspective on the PFAS challenge and how EcoPulse’s PFAS AI started to help chart away forward.

The Hidden PFAS Problem

During the webinar and candid conversation about PFAS preparedness, Rob Somers highlighted one of the PFAS problems for most industries:

“There are a couple of different arenas that are challenging. One is your finished products and chemicals, but the area that we’ve realized is equally critical – and harder to see – is indirect materials. These include critical things like O-rings, gaskets, coatings, or mold releases that don’t go into the final product but can still introduce PFAS risk to your operations.”

“As 3M and others start phasing these out, we have to find suitable replacements, and that’s very challenging. But before we can replace them, we have to find them. That’s like searching for a needle in a haystack.”

“The first step is just knowing what contains PFAS,” Rob explained.

Per The Environmental Council of the States (ECOS), PFAS are used across 19 major industry sectors. It is estimated that 60-70% of industrial supply chain likely involve PFAS in at least some component or material, spanning from consumer products, medical device manufacturers, textiles to electronics and beyond.

This hidden PFAS risk is not just a Perrigo problem. It’s an industry-wide reckoning. With regulators, customers and plaintiffs asking harder questions, the time to act is now.

Why PFAS AI Is a Game-Changer

PFAS AI is designed to tackle these PFAS challenges:

·      Scale of hidden PFAS - Millions of chemicals across countless components and materials.

·      Regulatory & reputational risk

·      Need for systematic analysis and prioritization

Manual inspection is impractical; Supplier outreach requires lots of follow-up effort and could still be missing important information; AI can efficiently uncover potential risks across complex material inventories and supply chain.

By leveraging large language models and a proprietary database of PFAS knowledge, the tool equips the companies to:

·      Instantly flag high‑risk materials and suppliers

·      Prioritize indirect materials (e.g., gaskets, coatings) where PFAS often lurk

·      Stay ahead of evolving regulations globally

“We partnered with EcoPulse on PFAS AI because it helps us zero in on risk areas much faster.” Rob said, “We’re using PFAS AI primarily on indirect materials — the things that are often overlooked. It will save us time and give us a clearer roadmap of what we need to address first.”

PFAS AI Beta Program

The webinar was well received by the companies attending. We’re excited to announce that two more enterprises have joined the PFAS AI beta group following the webinar. EcoPulse is inviting additional companies to join this beta program for hands-on experience and the collaboration to shape and grow PFAS AI solutions together to tackle this critical PFAS challenge to the industry and community.