Fears throughout Europe are escalating about the use of toxic “eternal chemicals”, which studies have shown in our blood, our food, our water, and mostly in unsafe levels.
Over recent years, several European countries have seen scandals related to the artificial drainage “Peruvorto Alkille and Polyau Floro Alalel (Flore -saturated and fluoride chemical (FFAS), in soil and waterways, which sparked serious health risks to neighboring societies.
These substances are known as “permanent chemicals”.
Amid the growing general pressure, governments are forced to move. But how effective is her efforts and is it sufficient?
What are the eternal chemicals?
Eternal chemicals are a group of more than 10 thousand industrial chemicals, which take a very long term to decompose, as it consists of a series of carbon atoms associated with fluorine, which makes them resistant to grease, oils, water and heat, and it has been used for the first time in the 1940s, and is now used in hundreds of products, including non -sticky food utensils, food packaging, and resistance fabrics Water, carpets, cleaning products, paints, and fire extinguishing foams.
Despite the benefits of these substances, exposure to them, even at low levels over time, is associated with a set of health risks: liver damage, high cholesterol, poor immune response, low birth weight at birth, and many types of cancer.
Are there eternal chemicals in our blood?
The European Environment Agency has searched a series of studies on the levels of BFAS materials in the blood of adolescence in nine countries.
The agency concluded that 14.3% of these teenagers have higher concentration rates than acceptable levels.
France is a leader in the field of legislation
France introduced some of the most striking regulations in Europe in terms of eternal chemicals, as a law passed in February prohibits the use of these materials in cosmetics, clothes, shoes and ski candles as of 2026, with a larger ban on their use in textiles, which comes into effect in 2030.
The law also requires a regular monitoring of these materials in drinking water, as the government launched a general map of the Internet last week that shows the BFAS materials in water all over the country.
In the Banana and Erdin areas, the consumption of tap water was banned after discovering abnormal levels of these materials last month.
Belgium .. The BFS materials crisis
Popular anger erupted in the Walonia region of Belgium in 2023, after investigations by the local RTB TV station, ignoring warnings about pollution with BFAS materials over the years.
The American army, which operates from a base in the small city of Chevir, indicated in 2017 the presence of high levels of permanent chemicals in local water, after an accident related to fire extinguishing foam, a material that is manufactured using large quantities of BFAS materials.
The American base recommended its employees to drink bottled water, but the local residents have been in dark for years, even after the regional government was informed of the problem in 2018.
Blood tests were widely conducted in Chevir in early 2024, and then extended to the surrounding areas later.
The authorities said that blood samples were taken from nearly 1,300 people in about 10 municipalities, to ensure that they were exposed to chemicals in recent weeks, as part of a new campaign launched last June.
In the so -and -so, the M3, the giant of chemicals, reached an agreement with the government in 2022, to address the situation, at a value of 571 million euros ($ 664 million), following the link between wide -ranging pollution with eternal chemicals, with its factory in Zendricht, near Anthosta.
Italy .. prison for environmental pollutants
Last June, Italy faced similar problems with major companies and BFAS materials, and an Italian court sentenced 17 years to executive officials at a chemical factory, for polluting the water used by hundreds of thousands with these materials.
About 11 executive officials in companies, including Japanese Mitsubishi, and the group of international chemical investors, based in Luxembourg, were convicted of polluting approximately 200 square kilometers of drinking water and soil through the Metnini factory, in the northeastern city of Terseno.
The Netherlands: Everyone is “eternal chemicals” in their blood
A national study conducted by the “National Institute of Public Health in the Netherlands” concluded that the BFAS materials, in all the 1500 blood samples that were tested, with almost every case exceeding the safe and health limits.
The institute concluded that “there is no possibility to avoid exposure to eternal chemicals completely. These substances are present throughout the Netherlands, in soil, food and drinking water.”
What does the European Union do?
The Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden submitted a proposal to the European Chemical Agency in 2023, calling for a comprehensive ban on eternal chemicals, and the proposal is currently under review by European scientific committees, and the review is scheduled to end in 2026.
The European Commission confirmed in its chemical industry plan, which she published last July, that it “is committed to submitting a proposal as soon as possible”, when she receives a review “with a general goal, is to reduce emissions from the BFAS materials to the minimum.
The UNHCR explained that it will look for the prohibition of consumer uses of these materials, but if alternatives to vital industrial uses are not found, it may be allowed to be used.
It also committed to make decisive efforts to clean the sites already contaminated on the basis of the principle of “the pollutor pays”, or with public funds if an entity is not found responsible for pollution.
It is also possible to set a framework for monitoring eternal chemicals at the European Union to collect data collection and maps of pollution areas.
In Germany, the economy ministers in several states expressed their opposition to the prohibition of these materials completely.
The Minister of Economy in the state of Baden-Fortterburg, Nicole Hofmester-Craot, of the Christian Democratic Party, said that although the consequences of human health are well known, it would impose a ban to destroy entire productive sectors in the European Union.
She added that this will have extensive repercussions on a broad program to reduce manufacturing activities. Claus Rohi Madsen, Minister of Economy in the state of Sleging-Holstein, said he was also anxious to the European Union regulations related to chemicals.
He explained, “The regulations cause severe damage to the chemical industries and the value chains that depend on them through the costs that are constantly increasing, wide ambiguity in planning, and the accumulation of innovations and investments.”
There are some rules that are already applied at the level of the European Union, such as setting a maximum level of levels of “BFAS” materials, in drinking water starting in 2026 and restrictions on a specific sub -group of these materials.