what are the health effects of PFAS?

LÉA GIRARDOT FOR “THE WORLD”

Little studied before the 2000s, almost unknown to the public, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are nevertheless omnipresent in the products we use and consume, in the environment, and also in our organisms. Classified as toxic, bioaccumulative and persistent, these “eternal pollutants”, which come in thousands, if not millions of chemical compounds, do not break down in the environment and are one of the most serious contaminations the world is facing today. faced today.

Faced with this threat, political awareness is late: the French government has just launched a national action plan, and a project to ban the entire family of PFASs has been initiated at European level. Projects that come up against industrial resistance. However, the health effects are numerous.

In the blood of the whole population

In France, PFAS (in particular PFOS and PFOA, “historic” PFAS, banned since 2009 and 2019) are present in the blood of the entire population, adults and children, as shown by the Esteban biomonitoring program in 2020. scientific work conducted on the population of the United States arrive at the same conclusion, or almost: PFAS are indeed found in 97% to 100% of the samples tested.

According to the first results of the European research program HBM4EU – made public in 2022 –, the blood of more than 14% of European adolescents contains PFAS which reach levels above the indicative value of the European Food Safety Authority. Twelve PFAS were detected among the nearly 2,000 samples collected in nine European countries, including France. The highest values ​​were in Northern and Western Europe.

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The levels of PFOS and PFOA in the blood of populations have tended to decline since their respective bans. But these “long-chain” PFASs (composed of more than six carbon atoms) have been replaced in industrial processes by other “short-chain” PFASs, most of which are also toxic; all are highly mobile in the environment.

Since the mid-2000s, increasing scientific attention has highlighted numerous health effects through animal surveys and epidemiological studies of the populations most at risk: factory workers where PFAS are synthesized and used, and the residents of these industrial sites.

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