a bill examined in the Assembly to reduce their “superfluous” use from 2025

Frying pans, baking paper, paints, pesticides, textiles, food packaging… PFAS are everywhere around us and are causing increasing concern. A bill is being examined on Wednesday to ban the majority of their use from 2025.

Dangerous and very persistent, PFAS represent several thousand substances covered by a bill from environmentalist MP Nicolas Thierry. This proposes to ban the majority of uses of PFAS, gradually from 2025. The text is examined on Wednesday March 27 in committee at the National Assembly.

Behind this acronym PFAS hides per- and polyfluoroalkyls, a very large family of molecules manufactured by humans. These chemical compounds have the particularity of having extremely strong bonds between carbon and fluorine atoms, which gives them exceptional characteristics of resistance to heat, light and even acidity. These properties are highly sought after by the entire industry and we therefore find PFAS almost everywhere around us: non-stick pans and baking paper, waterproof clothing, cosmetics, certain food packaging, fire-fighting foams, medical equipment. … These molecules, used since the 1940s, are omnipresent and, it must be said, very useful.

Dangerous and not very degradable, these compounds accumulate everywhere

But these very resistant chemical compounds take decades to degrade. They therefore accumulate in our environment and our body. Bad for health, it has been proven that PFAS can cause cancer (testicular or kidney), growth problems, fertility or immune system failure. An observation that is all the more worrying given that these eternal pollutants, through their use and release into nature by the chemical industry, are even found in tap water or our food.

In 2019, Santé Publique France published the ESTEBAN study after testing nearly 1,000 people. Some PFAS were found in 100% of them. These compounds have even been spotted in polar bears, hundreds of kilometers from any human activity.

Maintain essential recourses and reduce “superfluous” uses

The simplest solution to partially resolve the problem is therefore to reduce the use of these eternal pollutants as much as possible by distinguishing between the remedies “essentials” of the “superfluous”, as requested by the NGOs and the bill examined in the Assembly. For example, we could do without PFAS in the textile industry, food packaging or ski wax.

But in certain areas, these molecules are now essential, such as in health. PFAS are used, for example, to package medicines and manufacture catheters or ophthalmic lenses. In these cases, we remain very dependent on eternal pollutants.