‘Forever chemicals’ widespread in European waters: Report
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Perfluorooctane sulfonate, banned in 2019, was found throughout European waters.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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COPENHAGEN – Contamination of so-called forever chemicals in European waters often exceeds regulatory thresholds set to reduce potential risks to human health and the environment, the European Union’s environment agency warned on Dec 10.
Presenting an overview of the presence of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – often called forever chemicals – the European Environment Agency (EEA) said perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), banned in 2019, was found “throughout European waters”.
Ms Nadia Cerioli, an expert with EEA, said: “We have a problem with PFOS, which is both persistent and widespread.”
Between 2018 and 2022, depending on the sites for which data are available, 51 per cent to 60 per cent of rivers, 11 per cent to 35 per cent of lakes and 47 per cent to 100 per cent of coastal waters exceeded environmental quality standards for PFOS, according to the report Ms Cerioli co-authored.
The report, the first inventory in Europe, collated data on reported concentrations of PFOS – one of the two most widespread PFAS – which is classified as a “possible carcinogen” by the World Health Organisation.
Reported on a voluntary basis, the data collected by the EEA does not offer a complete overview because not all of its member states – which include several non-EU countries – report them.
In 2022, 14 countries reported data on the concentration of pollutants in surface waters.
In Belgium, France and Iceland, 100 per cent of reported water bodies had levels exceeding quality standards, while five countries (Spain, Ireland, Poland, Croatia and Estonia) reported levels exceeding the threshold in less than 20 per cent of sites.
In three countries, Bulgaria, Latvia and Montenegro, no sites recorded levels exceeding guidelines.
“We still need more monitoring data to map the contamination and to get a more complete picture of where you find PFOS hot spots,” said Mr Magnus Lofsted, another co-author of the report, lamenting a lack of knowledge on the occurrence of the chemicals.
“This points to the need for increased monitoring efforts for PFAS using methods that have a sufficient sensitivity to also detect the substances at very low levels,” he added.
According to Mr Lofsted, it is impossible to determine what the trend is for the spread of the pollutants, despite the ban, since data has not been recorded for long enough. AFP
