Le Canard chainé revealed this Wednesday a confidential and alarmist email from the director of the Occitanie Regional Health Agency, concerning the presence of PFAS and metabolites in the region’s water.
- “There are PFAS [Substances per- et polyfluoroalkylées, ndlr] and metabolites everywhere”, affirms the director of the ARS of Occitanie.
- “It should no longer be consumed, but only used for everything else,” he adds.
- For future generations, we must move towards a virtual ban on all these substances. “We must stop pollution at the source at the industrial level by reducing PFAS and at the agricultural level by significantly reducing the use of pesticides,” says François Veillerette, spokesperson and director of the association.
“Very clearly, we are going to have to change our approach and our discourse, there are PFAS [Substances per- et polyfluoroalkylées, ndlr] and metabolites everywhere. And the more we look, the more we will find.”, affirms Didier Jaffre, director of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Occitanie, in a confidential email sent to his executives on September 23. Information revealed by Le Canard chainé this Wednesday.
Tap water in Occitanie “must no longer be consumed”
In this alarmist email, the director adds: “It should no longer be consumed, but only used for everything else. [Il faut] therefore favor bottled water.”
Too much junk in the taps? An ARS director sounds the alarm on drinking water in a confidential message that “Le Canard” was able to consult. The cause: eternal pollutants (PFAS) and pesticide residues which invade the pipes…
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— The Chained Duck (@canardenchaine) October 18, 2023
If tap water in Occitanie is polluted by PFAS and pesticide metabolites, what about other regions? These chemicals are present everywhere, no doubt about it. However, the alert thresholds are not the same depending on the region and the controls consist of a single analysis once a month and on a single catchment (compared to a daily analysis on all the catchment points for bacteria).
PFAS and metabolites: what are the health risks?
PFAS form a large family of several thousand synthetic chemical compounds. They are widely used by industry for their very resistant properties. They are therefore found in many everyday objects such as non-stick pans, artificial turf, cosmetics, mobile phones, etc. Problem: these eternal pollutants accumulate more and more in the environment and contaminate our bodies.
“It’s difficult to say what the health risks are, because it depends on the quantities and which PFAS precisely we find… These almost indestructible molecules in the environment are suspected of being endocrine disruptors, some are linked to cancers , dysfunctions of the immune system, etc.”, explains to Why doctor François Veillerette, spokesperson and director of Générations futures. “The same goes for pesticide metabolites. And we don’t only find them in Occitania. For example, chlorothalonil is present in the waters of the Paris basin. However, this substance has been suspected of being a probable carcinogen since 2006, and it was only in 2019 that it was banned.”
For future generations, only one solution: the virtual ban on all these substances. “Plastic bottles are not the solution. We must stop pollution at the source at the industrial level by reducing PFAS and at the agricultural level by significantly reducing the use of pesticides. We need to review the policy, because one day, even if we are not there yet, we will no longer be able to drink tap water in France!”
