Image description: An outstretched hand holding out a glass filled with water. The water glass is in sharp focus while the person is blurred. Image by engin akyurt on Unsplash
Exclusive analysis by the Ends Report and the Guardian of the responses submitted to the parliamentary committee revealed major chemical producers, from UK-based companies to large US corporations, urging parliamentarians that any incoming UK Pfas regulation should be more limited than that currently proposed in the EU, which targets the whole group of chemicals.
Why Europe is banning PFAS
Pfas, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances and commonly known as forever chemicals owing to their persistence in the environment, are a family of about 10,000 chemicals. They are used across a range of industries, from cosmetics to firefighting.
Exposure to some PFAS has been linked to numerous adverse health impacts, such as the promotion of certain cancers, disruption of the immune system and reduced fertility. Recent research revealed exposure to certain PFAS compounds caused changes to gene activity. PFAS do not naturally breakdown, and their persistence means they are widespread in the environment, often spread through water bodies.
In 2021, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) agreed that the way Pfas chemicals do not break down in the environment i.e. their “persistence” was a key and defining characteristic.
In the EU, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is evaluating a proposed restriction of Pfas using this OECD definition, which if implemented would set a global precedent.
France recently became the second EU country, alongside Denmark, to act on restricting PFAS, while an Italian court recently handed out the first conviction for PFAS pollution.
Lobbying efforts for looser restrictions
In May, MPs on the environmental audit committee (EAC) launched an inquiry into PFAS, with a call for evidence on the uses and risks of the substances, and options for how to regulate them.
The Guardian reported that many of the responses from chemicals firms analysed by the Ends Report call for a commonly used type of Pfas called fluoropolymers to be spared the same kind of regulation as other types of forever chemicals, on the basis that they are not as harmful. However, the validity of this argument, being made on record to UK politicians for the first time, has been disputed by scientists, with one stating that the chemicals industry is “copying the big tobacco playbook”.
Chemical companies using Big Tobacco “scaremongering” tactics
The Chemical Industries Association was approached by the Guardian to respond to the claims that the industry was using “scaremongering” tactics from the Big Tobacco playbook. In response, the trade association pointed to its own EAC evidence submission, in which it stated that it “encourages policymakers not to treat all Pfas as a single group”.
Its submission added: “Assuming they all have identical persistence, hazards, uses and therefore risk profiles – in our view is not a scientific approach, nor is it the reality for managing chemicals.”