Environmentalists decry ‘crushingly disappointing’ Pfas action plan for UK | Pfas
Environmental campaigners have criticized the UK government’s “overwhelmingly disappointing” plan to tackle chemicals “forever” and warned it risks causing decades of avoidable harm to people and the environment.
The government said the Pfas action plan sets out a “clear framework” for “coordinated action … to understand where these chemicals come from, how they spread and how to reduce exposure to the public and the environment”.
But campaigners described the plan as “incredibly weak” and criticized its failure to match tough measures taken in Europe, where national governments have already banned chemicals on public safety grounds ahead of EU-wide action.
Man-made per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (Pfas), a family of thousands of chemicals thought to be in the blood of every person on the planet, are used in a wide range of consumer products, from waterproof clothing to electronics.
They are prized for their indestructible and non-stick properties; Their chemical bonds are so strong that they will not break down in the environment for tens of thousands of years, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.”
There is emerging evidence that Pfas causes numerous harms to human and environmental health; Two of the previously most widely used persistent chemicals are now largely banned after research linked them to multiple types of cancer.
Research last year found almost all British waters had levels of Pfas above recommended safety limits. The chemical was found in the tissues and organs of dolphins, otters, porpoises, fish and birds in the UK.
Introducing the plan, environment minister for chemical pollution, Emma Hardy, said Pfas “poses a long-term problem not only for our health, but also for the country’s vital ecosystems”, adding that the government will “act decisively to reduce its harmful effects”.
The measures include launching a consultation on setting a legal limit for Pfas in the UK’s public supply regulations, further testing and monitoring in England’s estuaries and coastal waters, tests on food packaging to determine whether it contains Pfas, and the launch of a website “to increase public awareness and understanding”.
Chloe Alexander, chemicals policy lead at Wildlife and Countryside Link, described the document as a “hugely disappointing framework that avoids tough decisions”.
He said the measures fell far short of plans in Denmark and France, which have already banned Pfas in some consumer products including clothing and cosmetics and taken action to clean up contaminated areas. Moves are already being made at EU level to impose a bloc-wide restriction on their use.
Shubhi Sharma, a scientific researcher at the Chem Trust, said the government’s request for more information was unnecessary and amounted to a delaying tactic.
“This was not the action plan we expected; the action was postponed to an indefinite date,” he said.
Head of the Department of Environmental Chemistry at the University of Birmingham, Dr. Mohamed Abdallah said: “Given the significant risks posed by Pfas to human health and the environment, it is encouraging to see the UK taking an active, holistic approach to regulating them and minimizing harmful effects before it is too late.”
But Prof Patrick Byrne, reader in hydrology and pollution at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “The biggest blind spot in the plan is that we don’t actually know how much of these chemicals are entering the environment or where they’re coming from.
“Simply measuring Pfas concentrations or increasing monitoring as the plan suggests will not solve this problem. What we need instead is measuring Pfas loads, which is the total amount released from different industries and contaminated sites. This allows us to identify the biggest pollutants and target cleanup efforts where they will have the biggest impact.”
