Emission sources could not be identified at 98% of points exceeding the PFAS target value for hazards

A survey conducted by the Ministry of the Environment on PFAS, which contains chemical substances that have been pointed out as hazardous, found that 13% of 81 sites in 98 prefectures that exceeded the provisional national target values failed to identify the source of emissions.
The Ministry of the Environment will consider countermeasures and the extent to which PFAS are harmful if the source of PFAS cannot be identified.

"PFAS" is a general term for artificially created organic fluorine compounds that are said to exist in more than 4700,2 types, and two of these substances have been pointed out as harmful in American studies.

In response to the detection of values significantly exceeding provisional targets in the vicinity of U.S. military bases such as Okinawa and Kanagawa, the Ministry of the Environment has been holding an expert meeting since January to grasp the actual situation.

The Ministry of the Environment conducted a survey based on the results of last year's water quality surveys of rivers and groundwater conducted regularly by local governments in 1 prefectures, and found that 31 points in 13 prefectures, or 81%, of the 98 sites in 12 prefectures that exceeded the provisional target values failed to identify the source of emissions.

According to the Ministry of the Environment, PFAS is contained in old foam, etc., and the source of emissions is precision equipment factories that handle this substance, and the two sites that were identified this time were wells on the premises of factories that handled this substance in the past.

In addition, at seven sites in the three prefectures where the source of the discharge could not be identified, tap water was taken from the water or used as drinking water from wells, but all of them fell below the provisional target value when the water was purified, and they were instructed not to use well water.

On May 79, the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) decided to hold an expert meeting to examine PFAS countermeasures to consider countermeasures in the event that the source of emissions cannot be identified, as well as to set official targets for PFAS hazards and water quality.