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Although the improvement in monitoring and treatment techniques is welcome, what the world needs first and most important is a universal restriction on chemicals. In fact, we needed it yesterday.
There are more than 10,000 PFAs, also known as “Forever Chemicals”, and they are used almost everywhere, including nonstick cookware, waterproof clothes, smartphones, microwave popcorn packets, hair conditioners, fire-fitting foam, pacemaker, pesticides and dental floss.
They do not easily degrade; They also do not live where we put them. As a result, we can now find PFA in places like our blood, human breast milk, Antarctica, wild animals and tap water. In the Netherlands, people have been warned not to eat eggs from their backyard chickens due to high levels of chemicals by the National Institute for Public Health and Environment. Although it is not yet clear why the amount of PFA is higher than commercial people in home -made eggs, one theory is that earthworms now have such chemicals, and chickens prefer to eat insects.
An analysis of the wildlife and rivers links of environmental groups and rivers found that almost all rivers, lakes and ponds in England are higher than the proposed security boundaries, with a level of 85% at least five times higher. France has banned tap water in 16 community due to PFAS contamination, while a piece of investigative journalism is located on 23,000 contaminated sites and 21,500 sites across Europe called Forever Pollution Project. I hope we have not seen tap water restrictions.
If the scale and border of pollution is difficult to bring your head around, then health implications are worse. PFAS is associated with a variety of cancer, reproductive problems, complications of birth, delay in puberty and weakened immune systems. They have also been associated with cholesterol levels and kidney problems.
We are seeing a problem in suit climate change by-PFAS manufacturers lobbying and cover-up just below. The internal documents of the 3M company, one of the original and largest producers, and the chemical firm DuPont de Nemors Ink revealed that companies knew that substances were accumulating in people and showing symptoms of poisoning for decades without telling anyone. While 3m still suggests that their PFA -rich products are “safe” for their desired uses in everyday life, in December 2022 the company announced that it would stop the use of PFAS by the end of 2025. Together, firms have to pay billions in settlements related to their pollution related cases, with injuries that have come as more and more injuries.
With carbon dioxide, the longer we emit PFA in the environment, the problem is equally worse and it is equally difficult. While the PFAS market exceeds just $ 28 billion globally, the cost of cleaning all related pollution in Britain and Europe can be € 100 billion ($ 116 billion) a year, if nothing is done to prevent the stable flow of chemicals in the environment. And this is not a factor in health care costs, which Nordic Council Office ministers estimate that at least € 52 billion annually.
Although some consumer brands such as outdoor gear retailer Patagonia Inc. and Fast-Food Chain McDonald’s Corp have committed to phase out PFA from their products and packaging, others are pulling their legs. A team of researchers, lawyers and journalists have also highlighted a huge lobbying campaign against proposed sanctions in Europe, which reflects resistance to change.
So we need a restriction, but so far, we have only seen the laminated prohibition, targeting a specific chemical or in a couple of some major countries, regions.
The imports and sales of PFAS-covered clothes, shoes and waterproofing agents will be stopped in Denmark from July 2026, while chemicals have been banned from 2020 in paper and board food packaging. The country has recently announced a ban on 23 pesticides which can create a very mobile form called trifuluratic acid. Meanwhile, France has banned PFA in several consumer product groups, including textiles, cosmetics and ski wax. However, Cookware is excluded from the ban following a campaign led by the French manufacturer of Tuffal Panks, Group Apple. Although this is a beginning, giving exemption to an area for which safe options are easily available, is clearly, condemnable.
A universal restriction can occur on its way. In 2023, five European Union member states – Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Norway – submitted a resolution to the European Chemical Agency, which is now being investigated by two scientific committees. The restrictions include both consumer and industrial applications, with the required time-limit discounts for some uses where there are no options, such as medical equipment.
The most important about the ban is that it takes a precautionary approach, regulating all more than 10,000 PFAs as a group individually instead. According to the Cam Trust, a charity that focuses on harmful synthetic chemicals, under the current rate of regulation that individually analyzes each chemical, will take more than 40,000 years to get through all.
Therefore the European Union restrictions will be a big step with positive impacts beyond its borders. But we must be waiting for a while to come under its influence – if everything happens smoothly, we are likely to see 2028, before the sectors infection in new rules.
Meanwhile, progress is mandatory elsewhere. The UK government published an interim status on PFAS management in June, but it has been criticized by scientists for not targeting all chemicals at once and for creating their own groups instead. Not only is it risky, it fails to regulate the compounds that lack toxicity data, but lack urgency. In the US, the Trump administration has drawn about $ 15 million in research in PFAS contamination of Farmland, while the environmental protection agency has announced a plan to cancel the drinking water range for four forever chemicals.
Of course, banning the use of all PFAs will not do anything for substances already in our body and drinking water. But we know that restrictions help. Two chemicals – PFOS and PFOA – are already banned in Europe. A 2023 study has shown that Denmark has dropped significantly in blood concentrations of chemicals over time.
It is time to stop playing WHAC-A-Mole with chemicals that we know is bad for us and our environment. If we take action now, we can give a chance to clean us the dirt. From Bloomberg’s opinion.
This column reflects the individual views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Lara Williams is a Bloomberg opinion columnist who covers climate change.
Such more such stories are available on bloomberg.com/opinion
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