PFAS on the coronary heart of a invoice debated within the Assembly | EUROtoday

Published on : 04/04/2024 – 03:57Modified : 04/04/2024 – 08:12

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Will there be a reprieve for everlasting pollution? The deputies will study on Thursday April 4 a invoice geared toward limiting the manufacture and sale of merchandise containing PFAS, the adoption of which is unsure within the face of reservations from the presidential camp, below strain from producers.

Massively current in on a regular basis life (Teflon pans, meals packaging, textiles, vehicles, and so forth.), these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS (pronounced “pifasse”) owe their nickname to their very lengthy life cycle and, for some , to their dangerous impact on well being.

At first look consensual, the invoice offered by ecologist Nicolas Thierry, first of eight texts offered by his group as a part of its parliamentary area of interest, ought to in the end be hotly debated.

See additionallyEternal pollution: in direction of a complete ban on these persistent chemical molecules?

The authorities highlighted the work underway at European degree on Wednesday. “It is at the European level that we must fight on this subject, the European lever is the right lever” so as to not weaken French business on the expense of these of neighboring international locations, declared within the hemicycle the Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal.

The European Chemicals Agency revealed a draft ban in 2023 shifting within the path of a broad restriction of PFAS. But “this initiative is conditional on a long decision-making process and could result in the most favorable scenario by 2027-2028”, in accordance with Nicolas Thierry.

Restricted ambition

The textual content from the MP for Gironde goals to scale back the inhabitants's publicity to those molecules, by prohibiting the manufacture, import, export and advertising of sure merchandise which include them.

In its preliminary model, it deliberate to ban using PFAS by July 2025 for sure merchandise, and 2027 for others, with attainable exemptions. In order to acquire a majority within the Sustainable Development Committee final week, Nicolas Thierry agreed to limit its ambition.

The model offered within the hemicycle thus offers for a ban from 1^er January 2026 any kitchen utensil, beauty product, wax product (for skis) or textile clothes product containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, except protecting clothes for security and safety professionals civil.

All textiles can be affected by the ban from 1^er January 2030. The packaging sector, nonetheless, falls outdoors the scope of the legislation, to the extent {that a} European regulation should “very soon” regulate it extra strictly.

Other measures embrace the duty to regulate the presence of PFAS in consuming water all through the nation and the appliance of the polluter pays precept with a tax focusing on producers who launch them.

Read additionallyDrinking water in peril: pesticides, new everlasting pollution?

“Don’t touch my frying pan”

Despite this rewriting, the textual content continues to arouse reluctance.

Author of a report in February which known as for “urgently stopping industrial discharges” containing everlasting pollution “without waiting for European restrictions”, the MoDem deputy Cyrille Isaac-Sibille tabled an modification which plans to postpone the ban utilized to kitchen utensils at 1^er January 2030.

A place taken concomitantly with the mobilization of the kitchenware producer Seb, who this week brandished the menace that such a legislation would pose on employment.

On Wednesday, a whole bunch of staff supported by their administration organized a gathering close to the National Assembly to demand the “withdrawal” of the textual content. “Don’t touch my frying pan,” we may learn on indicators.

The legislation would threaten 3,000 jobs on the Seb factories in Rumilly (Haute-Savoie) and Tournus (Saône-et-Loire) which notably manufacture Tefal stoves, and the polytetrafluoroethene used for the coating of the latter wouldn’t be harmful, in accordance with the band.

Questioned by AFP, Nicolas Thierry denounced the “rather crude lobbying” of an industrialist who “disseminates scientifically erroneous information” and who engages in “classic blackmail of employment” whereas “the future will be written without eternal pollutants” and that alternate options exist already for culinary merchandise.

“If, on such a serious public health subject, when there is a scientific, political, citizen consensus, we do not act, when do we do it?”, he expressed alarm.

According to Jean-Marc Zulesi (Renaissance), president of the Sustainable Development Committee, the place of the Macronist group is “not stabilized”. If some wish to reject the textual content, others plead for pushing again the deadline from 2026 to 2030. “An eternity” for Nicolas Thierry.

With AFP