27/05/2024 (Agence Europe) – European waters are contaminated by a very persistent chemical, trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a substance whose toxicological profile raises a number of questions, denounces the ‘European Pesticide Action Network’ (PAN Europe), in a study published on Monday 27 May. The organisation, which analysed 23 surface water samples (the Elbe, the Seine, etc.) and six groundwater samples from ten European Union countries, found that 79% of these samples contained levels of TFA above the limit of 500 ng/l proposed by the European drinking water directive for ‘eternal’ chemical substances (PFAS). TFA, which comes mainly from pesticides used in agriculture, is classified as irrelevant at European level and therefore escapes the threshold (100 ng/litre) limit for certain pesticides and products derived from their degradation in groundwater. To see the results of the study: https://aeur.eu/f/cdp (MB)