after the National Assembly, the Senate adopts a bill to regulate PFAS

The text was approved by a unanimous show of hands, with the support of the majority alliance of the right and the center. The text will have to go back through the Bourbon palace for final adoption.

Teflon pans, food packaging, textiles, automobiles… After the National Assembly, it is the turn of the Senate, Thursday, May 30, to adopt a bill to restrict the manufacturing and sale of products containing PFAS , these “eternal pollutants” massively present in everyday life. The text of the environmentalist deputy Nicolas Thierry, reworked by the upper house, was approved by show of hands unanimously by voters, with the support of the majority alliance of the right and the center.

Many everyday objects contain these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS, which owe their nickname to their very long life cycle and, for some, to their harmful effect on health. “With this law, we can turn off the tap and repair the damage of 80 years of pollution”, underlined Anne Souyris, senator from the environmental group who now hopes to see the text reinstated in the National Assembly to move towards definitive adoption. However, the ban on kitchen utensils, removed from the initial text by MEPs, has not been reintroduced at this stage, despite several attempts by the left.

As during the debates in the Assembly in April, the initiative did not overly appeal to the government, even if the Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Béchu welcomed a text “operational and concrete”. “That France can send messages where there is a consensus is one thing, but striving to build a framework that remains European is a necessity”nevertheless alerted the minister, fearing that France would get ahead of a European initiative currently under discussion.

The flagship article of the bill, maintained by the Senate, plans to prohibit from January 1, 2026 the manufacture, import and sale of any cosmetic product, wax product (for skis) or product clothing textiles containing PFAS, with the exception of certain industrial textiles or “necessary for essential uses”. A tax targeting manufacturers whose activities result in PFAS releases, on the principle of “polluter pays”, also appears in the text. These two key measures were adopted with some marginal adjustments, such as the exclusion from the scope of ban on products containing “residual traces” of PFAS, the maximum level of which will be defined by decree.