French National Assembly, impatient with EU, pushes for ‘forever chemical’ ban

On Thursday (4 April), the French opposition party Les Écologistes pushed a proposal to reduce the use of the so-called “forever chemicals” through the National Assembly, but the government favours a European solution to this environmental and health problem.

Per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are a group of man-made chemicals used in a wide variety of applications for their ability to repel water, grease, and dirt.

Found in textiles, household products, firefighting, cars food processing, construction, and electronics, they are known to resist degradation in the environment and harm human health if not properly managed.

In France, the ecologist MPs carried out tests on running water in 26 different towns. In 80% of cases, traces of seven different eternal pollutants were detected.

“Exposure to PFASs can have harmful effects on the environment and on human and animal health,” Sciensano, Belgium’s national public health institute, explained on its website.

The ecologists’ push for a ban on forever chemicals follows a January 2024 report by centrist Assembly Deputy Cyrille Isaac-Sibille on the topic.

Implementing European legislation

Under the EU directive on the quality of water intended for human consumption, the European Union has set a limit of 100 ng/l for 20 PFAS identified as causing concern, which will kick in from January 2026.

Five countries have submitted a proposal to the European Chemicals Agency (Echa) to completely ban PFAS.  The five (Germany, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, and Sweden) made the proposal under the framework of Europe’s chemical control regulation – the REACH Regulation.

This proposed ban is intended to prevent “regrettable substitutions”, whereby manufacturers switch to new molecules which are just as harmful.

Once Echa’s opinion has been published, the Commission will need several months to present its draft amendment. The member states will then be called upon to take a decision.

Ecologists want a speedy national initiative

The French ecologists, through the initiative of MP Nicolas Thierry, have proposed a national law that would ban from 2026 the manufacture, import, export and marketing of products containing PFAS for kitchen utensils, cosmetics, wax and textiles.

Justifying a national approach, Thierry cited  the slowness of European procedures, and raising the risk of no agreement in Brussels. “Who can predict what the position of each of our European partners will be? That’s why we need to take advance measures at national level”.

The government is opposed to this proposal. The Minister Delegate for Industry and Energy Roland Lescure, who took part in the parliamentary debate, said that the measure was “ineffective” and “probably counterproductive”. 

In the government’s view, the adoption of this bill would complicate regulations at both national and European level.

Government favours a European approach

Lescure pointed out that introducing a total ban on PFAS in France before EU agency Echa has given its opinion would have negative repercussions for French industry – including the risk of relocation.

For example, French manufacturer SEB-Tefal warned that a ban on the use of PFAS in cookware would put 3,000 jobs at risk in France.

The government, along with the far-right Rassemblement National and the conservative Les Républicains, ensured that a reference to cookware was removed from the Ecologists’ proposal.

Far-right MP Emeric Salmon warned his fellow MPs against giving in to “punitive ecology, which threatens to further deindustrialise France”.

Lescure said that “by favouring a national approach over a European one, you are jeopardising the way the single market works”, pointing out that if the other 26 member states operated in this way, it would be impossible to regulate trade in products containing PFAS within the EU.

To this end, the government says it supports the initiative of the five member states to refer PFAS to Echa and would like to speed it up.

The proposal now goes to the Senate – the upper chamber in the French parliament. If the text passes it will enter into law.

[Edited by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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