What is DWR and PFAS? 🤔
When shopping for ra rain coat or water-repellent textiles, you often come across the abbreviations DWR and PFAS. But what do they mean, and what exactly are the differences?
PFAS
Stands for perfluorinated substances and are synthetic chemical compounds that are often used as a DWR coating on water-repellent textiles.
Often also called PFC, which stands for perfluorinated compounds.
DWR
Stands for 'Durable Water Repellent' and is the definition of a coating that is applied to textiles to make them water-repellent.
DWR coating makes textiles water-repellent over a certain period of time based on frequency of use and washing, and the treatment should be renewed.
PFAS
Research shows that PFAS is harmful to the environment and health damaging. PFAS are synthetic substances that are chemically produced and contain fluorocarbons. When PFAS is used in DWR coatings on textiles, the environmentally harmful substances will be washed out into nature every time the textiles are washed and every time it rains. These substances does not only go into the groundwater, but circulate in nature together with rain. Measurements made of rainwater in several parts of the world show that we have already reached the maximum limit of what the planet can withstand. The amount of PFAS in drinking water is above the safety limit for both the USA and Denmark.
Alternatives
But DWR is not necessarily an environmental culprit, as long as it does not contain PFAS. In theory, a so-called DWR coating can be natural and environmentally friendly. Textiles can be treated with natural substances to make them water-repellent, such as beeswax and other plant-based wax or oil (often called oilskin).
There are also new innovative treatment methods such as RUCO®-DRY ECO, or the fabric Ventile®, which does not contain PFAS. These textiles are water-repellent, but at the same time soft and flexible, and without the waxy feeling that beeswax-treated textiles often get. The textiles can also be machine washed up to a dozen times before they should be re-impregnated.
