Be more ambitious on restricting harmful ‘forever chemicals’, Government urged

The UK should enact wide-ranging restrictions on “forever chemicals”, which could have the potential to harm humans, scientists have urged.

A group of more than 50 scientists from the UK and around the world have written to ministers urging them to be more ambitious in their regulation of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, than the previous government.

They warn the highly persistent group of chemicals show no evidence of degrading in the environment, and have been found across the world from the Arctic to Mount Everest.

They have also been detected in people’s blood, drinking water and foods bought in supermarkets.

They are widely used in industry and consumer goods, from non-stick frying pans to clothing and carpets, with concerns over a range of impacts from cancer to suppressed immune systems, and their ability to move through the environment for long distances.

Some well-studied PFAS have been found to be toxic to humans and wildlife, the scientists warned, and while some substances have been banned, there is little information about the impact of many others.

The letter to UK Government ministers warns the only way to curb them polluting the environment, and reduce their risks, is to regulate all the chemicals as a single group.

But the UK has adopted a “narrow definition” of PFAS which only includes a few hundred substances and excludes thousands more, the experts say.

The EU has adopted an approach which includes 10,000 chemicals with proposals to phase out all PFAS, with a few specific exceptions, and scientists behind the letter say the UK should be doing as well – or better – than the bloc, not lagging behind post-Brexit.

Associate Professor Tony Fletcher, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “I am worried that the effect of Brexit might lead to Britain lagging behind environmental improvements at EU level.

“In the case of PFAS regulation, the EU has some good proposals for regulating them all. We should be as good as that, if not better, and this letter is making the case.

“We have found effects on human health in the few specific PFAS which have been studied in detail, and exposure up to now is so widespread.

“As most uses of PFAS can be substituted with less persistent or less toxic alternatives, the EU initiative to phase out all PFAS (with a few specific exceptions), should be a model adopted by the UK Government.

“We can do at least as well as the EU proposals. I would be very disappointed if Brexit appeared to lead to worse environments for us than being part of the EU.”

Professor Ian Cousins, who works at Stockholm University in Sweden, said: “Because the UK has been slow in acting on PFAS pollution, many British people have been unnecessarily and unknowingly exposed to a whole cocktail of PFAS.

“We only understand the toxicity of a handful of PFAS well, while there are about 10,000 PFAS in use.

“These PFAS continue to be emitted in the UK and will remain in the environment for centuries to come.

“The UK should follow Sweden, and the rest of Europe, in ‘turning off the tap’ of PFAS pollution by enacting a broad restriction of all non-essential PFAS uses.”

A spokesperson for the Environment Department said: “We are charting a new course to develop an ambitious programme to turn the tide and better protect our natural environment.

“This Government has wasted no time in announcing a rapid review of the Environmental Improvement Plan to deliver on our legally binding targets to save nature.

“This includes how best to manage chemicals, including the risks posed by PFAS.”