On Monday 26 May, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published the German authorities’ request to classify trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) as toxic to reproduction.
TFA comes from “large industrial installations”, but is also “identified as a degradation product of several pesticides” and “certain gaseous PFAS”, the German authorities summarised.
They specified that their request was “based on the intrinsic danger, and not on the real risk to health, which also depends on the dose actually absorbed“. At present, there are no fears of “adverse health effects”.
“We are laying an important foundation for reducing the release of this persistent and worrying substance into the environment”, said Dr Kerstin Heesche-Wagner, Director of the BfR (German Federal Office for Chemicals).
This dossier on harmonised classification and labelling (HCL) is now open for comment within six weeks. ECHA’s Scientific Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) will then have 18 months to submit its opinion to the European Commission.
The NGO PAN Europe welcomed the German proposal on Tuesday 27 May. This “ultra-short-chain PFAS” is increasingly detected across Europe “in surface water, rainfall, groundwater, plants, food and wine”, it explained, pointing out that EU countries recently decided to ban the herbicide flufenacet, which degrades to TFA when applied, following a proposal by the European Commission in December 2024 (see EUROPE 13536/25). (Original version in French by Florent Servia)