They are in your raincoat, your mascara, your drinking water and your blood. Per and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or forever chemicals, are a family of more than 10,000 synthetic compounds whose defining characteristic is that they do not break down. The carbon-fluorine bond at the heart of each molecule is the strongest in organic chemistry, which makes PFAS excellent at repelling water and oil, and makes them essentially permanent once released into the environment. They have been detected on the summit of Mount Everest, in the tissue of deep-sea dolphins and in the brains of humans. Chronic exposure has been linked to liver damage, reduced immune response, thyroid disease, lower birth weight and several types of cancer. France has now become the first country in the European Union to ban them outright for consumer products, with the law taking effect at the start of this year. The ban covers cosmetics, clothing and ski wax, targeting every product category for which a PFAS-free alternative already exists.
More than 140,000 French citizens signed a petition urging lawmakers to pass the legislation, and the law also requires authorities to regularly test drinking water for a wide spectrum of PFAS compounds and to impose financial penalties on industrial polluters releasing them into the environment. A broader phase-out covering all textiles is set for 2030. Environmentalists note that a proposed ban on non-stick cookware was removed from the law after intense lobbying, but public health advocates have called the overall legislation a landmark step and a potential model for the rest of Europe. The European Union has been studying a bloc-wide PFAS restriction proposal and has not yet acted. Denmark was the first European country to ban PFAS in food packaging, and France’s new law positions it as the second nation on the continent to take comprehensive action. The pressure on Brussels is building.
Source: https://happyeconews.com/frances-ban-on-forever-chemicals/
