The French government published yesterday, Friday April 14, a report eagerly awaited by defenders of the environment. The document analyzes the risks of pollution by PFAS (or perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds) in the territory. PFAS are suspected of being very dangerous for health and the whole of biodiversity.
After the ANSES report a few days ago on water pollution to metabolites of chlorothalonil, a new document from the General Inspectorate for the Environment and Sustainable Development (IGEDD) is sounding a new alarm bell. Environmentalists were concerned that this report, commissioned a year ago and completed last October, was delayed in being published by the Ministry of Ecological Transition. It’s done and the data collected is worrying.
PFAS or perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds include several thousand different molecules, widely used in our daily lives and in industry for their non-stick, waterproof properties or their resistance to high heat. They are found, for example, in non-stick pans or waterproof clothes… These very persistent synthetic molecules can contaminate humans and animals through water, food or simply by breathing polluted air and dust. . Gold ” the chemical stability of PFAS makes them non-degradable substances in the environment. Persistent, mobile and accumulative [dans la faune et la flore] “, underlines the report. They are also called the ” eternal pollutants ”, which we still know very little about filtering and eliminating.
It is difficult to know the extent of pollution in France given the lack of data, the multitude of substances to be listed and the low concentrations at which they are encountered. However, even at very low doses, their presence worries the authors of the report who believe that even if ” their toxicity is still unknown, harmful and toxic effects on human metabolism have been observed for several PFAS and their carcinogenicity is suspected.»
The environmental MP for Gironde, Nicolas Thierry, who was at the origin of a bill against the risks associated with PFAS reacted strongly.
In France, these pollutants are practically not regulated… And even if it is possible to filter them at great expense with charcoal or very fine membranes, the only proven technique to really destroy them is to burn them at more than 900°C. The authors of the report therefore recommend that the use, production and import of all PFAS should be banned in the long term. In the meantime, measures to limit the source of these pollutants as much as possible must be taken and their monitoring in the environment must be reinforced according to the experts.
The European Union must also propose a strict regulation of PFAS This year.