The geological and mining research office (BRGM), in partnership with several ministries, has just launched a data visualization tool on PFAS. This interactive cartography allows everyone to locate contaminated sites … but it also raises new questions about the quality of our water.
Eternal pollutants, substances that worry
Eternal pollutants – or PFAS – refer to perfluoroalkylas and polyfluoroalkylas, these chemicals from omnipresent industrial production in our daily products. Perfluorous compounds that exist in the thousands and are qualified as “eternal” because of their very slow degradation (they survive hundreds, even thousands of years in the environment).
According to the ARS Pays de la Loire, four health effects are identified with sufficient level of evidence: a reduction in the immune response to vaccines, lipid disorders (due to a high rate of cholesterol and/or triglycerides), a decrease in birth weight and an increased risk of kidney cancer. On December 1, 2023, the International Center for Research on Cancer (CIRC) ranked PFOA as “carcinogenic for humans” (group 1) and PFOS as a “potentially carcinogenic for humans” substance (group 2B).
Other health effects are also suspected, although scientific evidence is currently less solid: this includes thyroid diseases, reproductive or fertility problems.
PFAS: Is it contaminated near you?
A threat that scientists around the world take very seriously seriously: they regularly highlight the likely effects of these substances on health and potentially contaminated food/drinks (drinking water of course but also tea, processed meats, prepared foods and even, recently, beer cans – due to insufficiently filtered brewing water). A few months ago, traces of eternal pollutants had been discovered in tap water from several municipalities and in certain bottles of water sold in supermarkets.
In Europe alone, 21,000 sites are contaminated by PFAS, with levels considered to be dangerous for the health of exposed people.
“”In addition, purification sludge, used as fertilizers, may contain PFAS, because our treatment plants are not able to eliminate micropollutants“, confided to us Dr. Pierre Souvet, cardiologist and president of the Health Environment France association (ASEF), in a previous interview.
In this rather alarming context, the government has decided to act by sharing “an inter -ministerial action plan“At the beginning of 2024 and a tool for visualization of national data for monitoring PFAS substances on July 31.
An assertive will of “transparency”
The visualization tool developed by the BRGM meets a transparency objective on the identification of PFAS issuing sites and PFAS measures in the environments.
“This work was carried out in collaboration with the Directorate General for Risk Prevention (DGPR), the Directorate General of Health (DGS), and Ecolab, the innovation laboratory at the service of the ecological transition, within the General Sustainable Development Commission (CGDD)”, specifies the government site.
On the data side, this map is based on databases of the National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN).
To consult this tool, find the link right here: https://macarte.ign.fr/carte/hzwzr5/info-pfas
A card to find out if your water contains PFAS
The visualization tool is for “To citizens, local elected officials, but also to the decentralized state services: regional environmental departments, development and housing (DREAL), Regional Health Agencies (ARS), Departmental Directions for Population Protection (DDPP) “, specifies the site.
Although this tool provides the public with detailed cartography of the territory and the samples taken, it does not offer interpretation criteria to determine whether the level of PFAS is worrying for the inhabitants. According to the decree of December 30, 2022, the total concentration of treacherous and polyfluoroalkylakyls should not exceed 0.10 microgram per liter (0.10 µg/l), which is the quality standard for drinking water.