France: the presence of "eternal pollutants" in water would be largely underestimated
Future Generations examined data on water quality in rivers, lakes and ponds across the country.
Wikimedia cc by-sa 3.0 Steffen Heilfort
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The presence of P-FAS - ultra toxic chemical substances with serious effects on health - in surface waters in France is "
widespread
" and largely "
underestimated
".
This is the alert launched by Générations Futures which examined data on the quality of water in the country's rivers, lakes and ponds.
The environmental NGO published a report on Thursday, January 12, as four European countries (Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden) are possibly preparing this Friday to ask the European Chemicals Agency for restrictions on these pollutants. extremely persistent in nature.
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They are called "eternal pollutants" because they remain in the environment for decades.
P-FAS, or perfluorinated compounds, have been used massively by industry since the 1950s in fire-fighting foams, paints, pesticides, but also in our Teflon stoves, in food packaging or textiles.
Result: in 2019, the health authorities revealed that 100% of the French population is impregnated with it.
Because they are now present especially in our rivers, lakes and ponds.
“
There are only five departments in which there has been no analysis showing traces of P-FAS measured.
In all the others, there are P-FAS that have been found.
In some places there are in all the analyses, I am thinking of Paris, Hauts-de-Seine etc.
», explains François Veillerette, from the NGO Générations Futures, joined by
Lucile Gimberg
, from the Science department.
With European colleagues, we participated in the writing and publication of this report on the results of #PFAS analyzes in certain food containers available in fast food.
Find it in French here: https://t.co/6EAlrQJJtK https://t.co/JH1UblQCih
— Future Generations (@genefutures) January 12, 2023
Catastrophic health effects
It is urgent to improve the monitoring of these ultra toxic substances in our surface waters, insists the environmental activist: “
Today, we are in a situation where in certain regions of France we have good monitoring with a lot of P- FAS sought, in others it is the opposite, so for the moment we are still almost blind to the real presence of these products in the water.
However, we know that they can be toxic in very small quantities.
»
Scientists have shown that these pollutants can cause cancer, negative effects on fertility and fetal development, or even disrupt the immune response to vaccines.
► Also to listen: Fight against air, water and soil pollution: European solutions
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