Whereas studying a current story from Joshua Bergan about wader care, over in Fly Fisherman Journal, I got here throughout this quote: “As a result of the sturdy water repellent (DWR) remedies at the moment in use by all producers include PFAS, off-the-shelf breathable waterproof outerwear efficiency will possible regress within the close to future.”
I’ve written about PFAS just lately for MidCurrent, and I’m personally and professionally intrigued to see how the upcoming PFAS bans play out. Based on all the present analysis, PFAS are “perpetually chemical compounds” that persist within the atmosphere in perpetuity. They’ve even been linked to some cancers in people, which has lead California to be on the forefront of banning these chemical compounds.
However as Bergan famous in his story, this implies we’ll possible see a right away drop-off in “breathable waterproof outwear efficiency” within the coming years. Your raincoat won’t be as 100% waterproof, and your new waders won’t be, both. That’s of explicit concern to fly anglers, since waders enable us to entry the water in a spread methods all year long.
I’ve posited earlier that this ban may grow to be a net-positive for anglers, as a result of it’s going to drive wader firms to innovate and discover PFAS-free options so as to add to the waterproofing strategy of wader materials.
What most individuals don’t totally perceive about waders, nevertheless, is that it’s not simply the coatings that totally different firms use on the materials that make them waterproof. It’s the development of the material itself that makes it breathable for air, however not water. To cite one other Fly Fisherman Journal article, this one by Ross Purnell, “The micro-porous membrane blocks water molecules from coming into, however permits (smaller) water vapor to go, and the heat of your physique creates that vapor and even forces it out of the waders because of the colder temperature on the skin.”
What the present DWR coatings do is assist additional waterproof and shield the material of a wader from saturating, and subsequently not respiratory, as successfully because it ought to. The lack of these coatings resulting from PFAS bans will inhibit the breathability till a brand new resolution is discovered, however gained’t immediately influence how waterproof your waders really are.
And, as Bergan notes in his story, two firms are at the moment engaged on PFAS-free DWR coatings. In actuality, we could not see a lot of a drop-off, in spite of everything.
