In an assessment published this Monday, the AEA presents an overview of the problem of pollution by so-called “eternal chemicals” in rivers and lakes but also in coastal and transitional waters.
Most of Europe’s rivers, lakes, transitional and coastal waters are polluted with at least one of the many persistent chemical compounds that are harmful to people and nature, the EU warned on Monday.
In an assessment published this Monday, the AEA presents an overview of the problem of pollution by so-called “eternal chemicals” in rivers and lakes but also in coastal and transitional waters (adjacent to river mouths).
Os “eternal chemicals” are synthetic compounds from the group of perfluoroalkylated and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS), which resist degradation and are harmful to health and the environment. The approximately 10,000 compounds in the PFAS “family” include perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), a substance that is already considered a global pollutant.
According to the EEA, citing data from 2022, from around 1,300 monitoring sites in Europe, 59% of sites in rivers, 35% of sites in lakes and 73% of sites in transitional waters and coastal areas exceeded the environmental quality standard for PFOS.
Monitoring data indicates that PFOS is widespread in European Union (EU) waters and often exceeds the thresholds that have been established to avoid risks to human and environmental health.
The EPA briefing note states that it is still difficult to draw conclusions about the extent of the problem across Europe, due to uncertainties and gaps in reported data.
But the widespread presence of PFOS in European waters, and potentially many other PFAS, is “a clear challenge to the EU’s zero-pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment” and compromises the policy objective of achieving good chemical status of Europe’s water bodies by 2027 at the latest.
“The results show a challenge in achieving the objectives of the zero pollution ambition for a toxic substance-free environment and achieving good chemical status under the Water Framework Directive,” says the EEA.
The note adds that the new evidence presented supports the proposed amendment to the Framework Directive to expand the list of priority substances (including more PFAS) and the need to review the PFAS limits specified in the Drinking Water Directive.
In the recent assessment “The state of water in Europe” the EEA says that only 29% of European waters achieved a good chemical status in the period 2015-2021.
PFAS, in addition to persisting in the environment, have the potential to accumulate in living organisms and be transported over long distances, have high mobility in water, soil and air, and have toxicological effects that impact humans and the environment.
