European Union Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall announced that the European Commission is weighing a ban on PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” in consumer products.
“What we know we are looking for is a ban in consumer products,” Roswall told Reuters. “This is something that is important for us human beings, of course, but also for the environment, but I think also for the industry so they know how they can phase out PFAS.”
According to a December 2024 briefing from the European Environment Agency (EEA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is “widespread throughout European waters, often exceeding regulatory threshold levels set to avoid potential risk to human health and the environment.”
“The widespread presence of PFOS and potentially many other PFAS in Europe’s water is a clear challenge to the EU’s zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment,” the EEA said. “It also compromises the EU policy target of achieving good chemical status for Europe’s water bodies by 2027 at the latest, as laid out in EU policy.” The agency noted that its human biomonitoring project found that the level of PFAS “exceeded safe guideline levels in European teenagers.”
In the United States, millions of Americans are exposed to contaminants through their tap water.
The finding, published in the journal Science, explained that PFAS may be present in up to 95 million Americans’ tap water.
“The footprint of PFAS occurrence at the depth of public and domestic water supply may continue to expand as groundwater is recharged to aquifers and migrates downward over time, given the extensive PFAS contamination reported in air, rain, and soil, among many other sources,” the study concluded. “Awareness and regular monitoring of PFAS coupled with appropriate drinking water treatment will help reduce human exposure from drinking water sources.”
