PFAS management is often treated as a matter of compliance: check the lists, confirm whether a chemical appears, and move forward if it doesn’t. But as PFAS definitions evolve and regulatory frameworks struggle to keep pace with chemical innovation, list-based screening alone is no longer sufficient to prevent risk.

Though the U.S. EPA banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1979 for hundreds of applications, exposure persists. In addition to communities burdened with persistent contamination, PCBs still linger in the food chain and in many old buildings, including schools.