BRUSSELS - New European Union backed research which compared conventional, fluorocarbon-based durable water and oil repellents (DWOR) with alternative, non-fluorinated solutions claims that alternatives such as silicon-based DWORs pose "no significant environmental hazard" and also offer the benefit of being completely degraded in wastewater treatment systems. However, the research again raises the question of whether fluoro-free water and oil repellent solutions offer a acceptable alternative to long-chain fluorocarbon (C8) and short-chain fluorocarbon (C6, C4) chemistry, suggesting that "silicone-based products do not have acceptable oleophobic (oil-repellent) properties.
