analyses carried out in\u00a02024 <\/b>by Pesticide Action Network Europe<\/a> showed that mineral waters were also contaminated by TFA.<\/p>\nBy accumulating in the environment, TFA poses a growing threat to public health: it is now on track to be classified as\u00a0toxic for reproduction<\/b>\u00a0in the European Union (EU) and also shows signs of\u00a0liver toxicity<\/b>.<\/p>\n
The results of the detection campaign conducted in France on drinking water (which accounts for about\u00a020%<\/b>\u00a0of PFAS exposure) show an average TFA concentration slightly above\u00a01,000 nanograms per liter (ng\/L)<\/b>, with a maximum value of\u00a025,000 ng\/L<\/b>\u00a0for a sample of water from a drinking-water treatment plant located downstream from a TFA production facility\u2014demonstrating the current ineffectiveness of treatments.<\/p>\n
Until now, the record in France was\u00a013,000 ng\/L<\/b>, for a sample taken from the tap in the town of\u00a0Moussac (Gard)<\/b>, located near a\u00a0Solvay<\/b>\u00a0group plant that produced TFA until September 2024. \u201cI have never seen such levels of TFA concentration in drinking water,\u201d comments environmental chemist\u00a0Hans Peter Arp<\/b>, one of the world\u2019s leading TFA experts. \u201cAnd these concentrations will continue to rise due to the expected increase in concentrations of TFA precursors [fluorinated gases, pesticides, etc.] in ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n
A metabolite of several pesticides<\/b><\/p>\n
However, ANSES notes that TFA concentrations are below the \u201chealth-based guidance value\u201d adopted by the Directorate General for Health, pending clarification of EU regulation.<\/p>\n
In a note quietly published on\u00a023 December 2024<\/b>, the French Directorate General for Health aligned itself with the provisional German value of\u00a060,000 ng\/L<\/b>, below which the risk is presumed to be zero. However, health authorities are maintaining \u201ca reduction trajectory toward a concentration below\u00a010 micrograms per liter<\/b>\u00a0[i.e.,\u00a010,000 ng\/L<\/b>].\u201d Two samples taken as part of the ANSES campaign showed concentrations above this 10,000 ng\/L target value. Other countries, such as the Netherlands, have adopted a health value almost five times lower:\u00a02,200 ng\/L<\/b>.<\/p>\n
These indicative, provisional values will be harmonized once the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA<\/b>) has established a reference value\u2014namely, a tolerable daily intake of TFA from all sources of exposure. Its conclusions were expected by the end of the year, but have been postponed to\u00a0July 2026<\/b>\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026 On average, all samples taken by ANSES exceeded the regulatory threshold of\u00a0100 ng\/L<\/b>\u00a0by a factor of\u00a0ten<\/b>. This means that tap water should be declared \u201cnon-compliant\u201d for the vast majority of French citizens if TFA were considered a relevant pesticide metabolite. In addition, the ANSES analysis campaign reveals the unique nature of TFA: its presence is not statistically associated with that of other PFAS. This characteristic suggests other pathways of environmental contamination, such as atmospheric deposition, notes\u00a0Xavier Dauchy<\/b>\u00a0(Nancy Hydrology Laboratory), who co-led the analysis campaign.<\/p>\n
Below, on the front page of\u00a0Le Monde<\/i>, whose main headline concerns PFAS, the paper denounces the fact that they are present not only in water but also in food\u2014especially wheat-based products. It is written above, but it is worth reiterating: PFAS (TFA) have also been detected in mineral waters.[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”68348″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Italian contamination is almost certainly similar to the French one. But new rules are coming to our country: will they be enforced? That is the big question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68349,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[45,54,55,50,53],"class_list":["post-68347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-protection","tag-cancer","tag-pesticides","tag-pfas","tag-pollution","tag-water"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68351,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68347\/revisions\/68351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}