“Sweden and Germany propose that about 200 highly fluorinated substances (PFASs) are to be banned in the entire EU. The substances have extremely poor degradability in the environment and accumulate in living organisms. The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is now holding a public consultation regarding the proposal.
‘The proposal is part of an effort to minimize the use of PFASs. Highly fluorinated substances have extremely poor degradability and remain in the environment for a very long time,’ says Daniel Borg, toxicologist at the Swedish Chemicals Agency.
The Swedish Chemicals Agency and Germany’s Federal Environment Agency (UBA) have submitted a joint proposal to ECHA, calling for six highly fluorinated substances to be banned, namely perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), perfluorodecanoic acid (PFDA), perfluoroundecanoic acid (PFUnDA), perfluorododecanoic acid (PFDoDA), perfluorotridecanoic acid (PFTrDA) and perfluorotetradecanoic acid (PFTeDA).
The proposed ban also applies to other PFASs that can be degraded to one of these six compounds. This means that in total the ban applies to a group of about 200 highly fluorinated compounds.
The reason for the Swedish-German proposal is that the substances have extremely poor degradability in the environment and accumulate in living organisms. The current use of these substances in the EU is low. The purpose of the proposal is to stop the substances from being used when other highly fluorinated substances are phased out, for example, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which will be banned in the EU as of 2020.
Today, ECHA is commencing a public consultation where government agencies, companies, organisations and individuals are invited to submit their views on the proposed ban. The consultation will be underway until 20 June 2018.”
Read the full press release from the Swedish Chemicals Agency