to promote their ban, environmentalists are increasing contamination tests, including among personalities

In the National Assembly, environmentalists are attacking eternal pollutants. Their bill, which will be examined on April 4, is based on tests carried out over the past year by deputies, on samples of tap water and on strands of hair.

Green MPs want to ban eternal pollutants from the chemical industry, found in food packaging, batteries, firefighting foam and other Teflon pans. These eternal pollutants are suspected of causing cancer, disrupting fertility, causing cardiovascular diseases, etc.

The environmental bill will be examined next week in committee and on April 4 in the hemicycle. Upstream, Thursday March 21, the environmentalist deputy for Gironde Nicolas Thierry, author of the text, will present new contamination results. Around ten personalities agreed to donate a lock of hair to test, such as host Nagui or multi-medalist decathlon athlete Kevin Mayer. At the same time, the environmentalist party has been taking samples, since the end of February, from the tap water of 25 municipalities, from Lorient to Narbonne, via Annecy.

A short-term ban targeting four sectors

For a year, environmentalists have been waging the battle against eternal pollutants and increasing the number of tests. Fifteen Green MPs had a lock of hair analyzed and demonstrated that they were all contaminated. In September, Nicolas Thierry began a tour of France, so that volunteer residents could also take the test. Out of 150 people, only four do not have eternal pollutants in their body. The others, 97% of the panel, present more or less strong doses. In their proposed law, environmentalists therefore propose to ban in the short term products that contain these molecules when we can do without them.

Nicolas Thierry is targeting four bans for mid-2025, concerning food packaging, cosmetics, clothing or wax to make skis slide, “because we have alternatives”, he said. The objective is to ban these eternal pollutants in 2027, but with exemptions for essential uses. These exemptions concern medical prostheses which contain them, or certain medications such as Prozac. In their text, environmentalists also want to make the detection of these pollutants in drinking water compulsory throughout France, and establish a polluter-pays system, so that manufacturers responsible for massive discharges finance the decontamination of water.

Does this text have a chance of being adopted?

The project will come first on April 4, the day of the environmentalist parliamentary niche in the Assembly, so it is sure to be considered. For adoption, environmentalists are seeking to convince colleagues from other parliamentary groups.

But the government is also working on eternal pollutants. He commissioned a report from a majority deputy, the elected MoDem of Rhône Cyrille Isaac-Sibille, some of whose recommendations are close to environmentalist proposals. There will be an interministerial meeting on Thursday March 21 to decide how the executive will position itself on the text of the Greens, who fear “that the government refuses to give them a political victory”.