'Forever chemicals' widespread in European waters: report

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'Forever chemicals' widespread in European waters: report
by AFP Staff Writers
Copenhagen (AFP) Dec 10, 2024

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 EU's environment agency warned Tuesday.

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), which was banned in 2019, was found "throughout European waters."

"We have a problem with PFOS which is both persistent and widespread," Nadia Cerioli, an expert with EEA, told AFP.

Between 2018 and 2022, depending on the sites for which data are available, 51 to 60 percent of rivers, 11 to 35 percent of lakes and 47 to 100 percent of coastal waters exceeded environmental quality standards for PFOS, according to the report 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 Organization.

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 percent 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 percent 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 hotspots," Magnus Lofsted, another co-author of the report, said, 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 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.