2024-04-15 09:30:40
A proposed law aims to ban PFAS for certain uses in France and a regulation aims to better regulate their use in packaging in Europe. The government unveils an interministerial plan and a group of scientists calls for better evaluation.
On Thursday April 4, the National Assembly unanimously adopted a Law proposition aimed at protecting the population against the risks linked to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). This text largely repeats the recommendations of the report “ PFAS, pollution and dependence: how to turn back the clock? » developed by MoDem deputy Cyrille Isaac-Sibille. The bill provides for the ban on PFAS discharges into the environment and the financing of environmental cleanup. She must now be confirmed in the Senate.
The bill wants to ban certain non-essential uses, such as waxes, cosmetics and clothing textiles containing PFAS from 1is January 2026. But MEPs did not find consensus on banning these products in kitchen utensils. The EU is working to restrict their use in food packaging from 2026, within the framework of the packaging regulation (PPWR).
PFAS, everywhere in the environment
PFAS are a large family of several thousand chemical compounds omnipresent in our daily lives. According to Public life, 256 are produced industrially, but a toxicity database from the United States Environmental Protection Agency lists more than 14,000. This wide distribution poses difficulties in drawing up an inventory of the pollution and carefully document the potential health impacts. Despite everything, manufacturers are fond of them because of their chemical properties, in particular resistance to water and high temperatures. We find them in kitchen utensils, textiles, food packaging and cosmetics.
This family of chemical compounds is therefore used in the composition of non-stick pans, with PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) coatings, better known by the trade name “teflon” since 1945. Another PFAS, PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), was used to make this PTFE. It was banned in July 2020 in Europe due to its toxicity and persistence in the environment. In December 2023, PFOA was classified as “carcinogenic to humans” (group 1) by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
PFOA has been replaced by other chemicals, such as GenX polymers or PFBS (perfluorobutane sulfonic acid) and its salts, whose safety also raises questions. The European Chemicals Agency (Echa) included them on its list of substances of very high concern in 2019.
Scientists step up to the plate
While Tefal welcomes the exclusion of kitchen utensils from the future law governing the use of PFAS, a group of scientists and popularizers has published a forum in the world to ask that “ PFAS be managed as a single chemical class, in the name of their persistence and their demonstrated or potential risks to human and environmental health.” This would make it possible to better regulate the uses linked to the use of these compounds for which it remains difficult to document all of the health risks. While there are thousands of them, “ assessing the health risk caused by each PFAS can take decades »recalls the collective.
Pierre Labadie, research director in environmental chemistry at the CNRS, believes France info what “ saying there are no problems with PTFE is an untruth ». The toxicological sheet for PTFE provided by the INRS mentions: “ In the various processing operations and during handling, the main risk is due to the release of fine particles and gases under the action of heat. The risks due to additives, mainly fillers, manifest themselves especially at the time of their incorporation or during machining work. Certain products (phosphoric acid, chromic acid, chromium salts) used with the polymer for coatings have, in addition to their own harmfulness, the property of significantly reducing the stability of the polymer to heat. Decomposition then begins at temperatures lower than those commonly accepted. » In addition, via the emission of particles and toxic gases, the institute reports that “ polytetrafluoroethylene processing operations present certain risks when they involve temperatures above 350°C. »
Manufacturers emphasize the few risks that PTFE poses under normal conditions of use. But it is important to focus on the impacts of PTFE during its production and not just during its use. In this sense, Pierre Labadie recalls that “ the production and use of fluoropolymers such as Teflon can result in emissions of a range of compounds into the environment”. He adds that “ we can think that PTFE could fragment and generate microparticles or even nanoparticles capable of penetrating the cells of living organisms”.
For its part, the government has just launched an interministerial plan on PFAS, structured around five areas of action. Firstly, given the lack of information on the impacts of PFAS on health and the environment, it will be necessary to develop methods for measuring emissions, environmental contamination and the impregnation of humans and other living organisms. It will then be a matter of developing “ robust exposure assessment scenarios for organisms (humans and other living organisms) taking into account multiple routes (ingestion, inhalation, skin contact) and sources of exposure ». Finally, the government intends to strengthen emissions monitoring systems, reduce the risks linked to exposure to PFAS and support research, while improving information to the population.
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