Environmental chemist Helmut Burtscher-Schaden reported this at a press conference in Vienna on Wednesday. In a petition to the state governors and federal government, the environmental protection organization Global 2000 is calling for an “immediate ban” on the main sources of TFA: certain agricultural plant protection products (PFAS pesticides) and coolants (F-gases).
In spring 2024, environmentalists from Global 2000 and the European Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe) took tap and mineral water samples in eleven EU countries such as Austria, Germany and Hungary. They then had an analysis carried out to determine whether they contained TFA. This substance belongs to the per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds, or PFAS for short, which are increasingly being banned in the European Union due to many harmful effects on health. It is the “terminal degradation product” of around 2,000 PFAS and is considered a “forever chemical” due to its great persistence, according to Burtscher-Schaden (Global 2000).
32 samples
The environmentalists were able to detect TFA in 32 samples from public drinking water networks and two samples from private Austrian domestic wells. Only two water samples from Germany did not contain any detectable amounts of TFA, they report. Mineral and spring water sold in bottles also contained TFA in almost two thirds of cases. “The average amount of contamination in mineral and spring water was, however, significantly lower than in tap water,” says the environmental chemist.
Mineral and spring water bottles contained an average of 278 billionths of a gram (nanograms) of TFA per liter, and the maximum value was 3,200 nanograms per liter. Tap water contained an average of 740 nanograms per liter, with a maximum value of 4,100 nanograms per liter in an Upper Austrian tap water sample. According to a risk analysis by a European health authority (the Dutch Institute for Public Health and the Environment – RIVM) based on current knowledge, 2,200 nanograms per liter would be a suitable guideline value for drinking water. “This limit was met by 94 percent of the samples examined,” says the Global 2000 report.
High TFA values in Upper Austria
“However, in 2026, a standard limit for ‘total PFAS’ of 500 nanograms per liter in drinking water is to come into force in the EU,” it continues. About half of the tap water samples examined would exceed this limit due to their TFA contamination. If the entry of TFA into drinking water is not stopped, it would have to be artificially treated using costly technical purification processes, say the environmentalists.
The main cause of drinking water contamination with TFA is believed to be the agricultural use of pesticides containing PFAS (e.g. as anti-foaming agents, note). In areas with a lot of agricultural land such as Upper and Lower Austria, Styria and Burgenland, the TFA levels would be significantly higher than in Salzburg, Carinthia, Vorarlberg, Vienna and Tyrol. In a petition to the state governors and the federal government in Austria, Global 2000 is therefore calling for an immediate ban on PFAS pesticides. Farmers should also be supported so that they can use alternative plant protection methods. In addition, TFA probably often gets into drinking water from “fluorinated gases (F-gases)” that are used as coolants. These should also be banned immediately, it said.
In May, environmental activists from PAN and Global 2000 had already detected TFA in 23 rivers and six wells in Austria and other EU countries.
