In a written question sent to the European Commission on Tuesday 1 July, Bas Eickhout (Greens/EFA, Dutch) and Cristina Guarda (Greens/EFA, Italian) asked the Commission to take account of the health risks associated with ‘eternal pollutants’ (PFAS) in European drinking water.
On the same day, an article by the independent investigative media firm Follow the Money claimed that technical guidelines adopted in 2024 in the Drinking Water Directive were the cause of significant pollution of drinking water by PFAS. This approach involves not considering high levels of TFA - trifluoroacetic acid, a key PFAS degradation product - in drinking water to be “non-compliant”.
The Greens/EFA ask the Commission whether it intends to revise its guidelines, ensure “systematic monitoring of key PFAS degradation products” and, finally, ban the main sources of TFA - PFAS pesticides and fluorinated gases - as it is “near impossible to remove TFA from drinking water, or extremely expensive”.
“The Commission must show that it is protecting the health of Europeans, revise this drinking water directive and eliminate PFAS as a matter of urgency. Let’s put the health of our citizens above the entrenched interests of the chemical industry”, said Bas Eickhout.
See the written question: https://aeur.eu/f/hpq (Original version in French by Florent Servia)