The NGOs Générations Futures and Pesticide Action Network Europe are warning of the presence of PFAS in many pesticides, making them even more dangerous for health and the environment.
- The two NGOs Générations Futures and PAN Europe reveal in a report that there are pesticides belonging to the PFAS family, “eternal chemicals” which threaten the environment and our health.
- Data shows that these PFAS pesticides are increasingly sold in France, leading to significant exposure of French citizens.
- However, this long-term exposure could lead to serious health consequences: cancers, neurodevelopmental disorders in children, harmful effects on sexual function and fertility in adult women and men, etc.
“Emissions of PFAS of industrial origin are unintentional, but what is important to emphasize is that we are in an intentional and known emission, because we directly and deliberately spread these substances on the soil.”, deplores toxicologist Pauline Cervan, presenting the new report of the NGOs Générations Futures and Pesticide Action Network Europe. Their observation is alarming: there are indeed pesticide substances belonging to the PFAS family, that is to say eternal chemical pollutants. This makes them more effective, so over the past ten years, sales of these PFAS pesticides have exploded in France, going from around 700 tonnes in 2008 to more than 2,300 tonnes in 2021.
PFAS pesticides: deliberate contamination of our food
“In fact, we began to know for several years that PFAS were used in pesticides, but we did not have a precise list of these substances.”, explains the toxicologist. “But thanks to the REACH regulation [dispositif européen qui vise à mieux évaluer et contrôler les produits chimiques utilisés par les industriels, ndlr], we had access to the information. In total, 37 of these active substances are still approved for use in pesticides in the European Union.”
Problem: Pesticides are generally applied directly to agricultural crops, resulting in residues in food, but also direct emissions into the environment. However, these pesticides which are themselves persistent and/or toxic, can be, because of the active substances, transformed into even more toxic and/or persistent metabolites. “Soil, air, water – including drinking water – and food are contaminated. PFAS residues accumulate in plants and other living organisms, including humans”, underlines the report. This is all the more the case as these products can be used in all agricultural crops.
Pesticide metabolites: what are the health risks?
“Of the ten most sold substances in France, all have persistent substances”, says Pauline Cervan. TFA, or trifluoroacetic acid, is one of these very persistent metabolites. Measurements carried out in Swedish fresh water and German tap water show its presence at worrying levels. “In France, these substances are not yet researched. Neither in groundwater nor in groundwater”, she specifies.
The NGOs also emphasize that the assessment carried out by health agencies is “failing”, notably because “the toxic properties of PFAS metabolites are not thoroughly evaluated”, which is also the case for the endocrine disrupting properties that PFAS can have. Furthermore, the cocktail effect – that is to say the effect that the mixture of these substances can produce on the body – has not been evaluated at all.
Chronic exposure to these substances could lead to long-term consequences for humans, particularly because several of them are suspected of being carcinogenic, genotoxic, neurotoxic,and many exhibit adverse effects even at low concentrations, affecting the liver, immune system and endocrine system”, recall the authors of the report.
PFAS pesticides: what are the most sold substances in France?
Future Generations and Pesticide Action Network Europe are calling on politicians to “urgent ban” of all these eternal pesticides. Note that, according to the data they collected, the ten PFAS pesticide substances most sold in France are: flufenacet, diflufenican, fluopyram, mefentrifluconazole, trifloxystrobin, lambda-cyhalothrin, flurochloridone, fluopicolide, fluazinam and tau-fluvalinate.
