Thousands of places in Europe contaminated with PFAS

The map compiled by Le Monde and 17 other media companies in Europe is the first to show how widespread the problem of PFAS contamination is. The map shows 17,000 locations in Europe that are contaminated with PFAS and a further 22,000 locations that are likely to be contaminated. Of the contaminated sites, 2,100 have been found to have such high levels of PFAS that they are deemed hazardous to human health. 

The media companies behind the survey also write that the costs for cleanup would be so high that in many places it is considered unreasonable, while PFAS chemicals do not break down and are mobile, which means that the problems will not decrease, they are forever chemicals.

Lisa Skedung, researcher at RISE and project manager for the POPFREE projects is not surprised by the result, but believes that the problem is likely to be even bigger:

- Since few PFAS chemicals are analyzed in regular analyses, the problem is likely much larger than the map shows. There is also remarkably little data from Sweden, given that blood analyzes have shown that Swedish young people are among those with the highest levels in Europe.

- The important measure is to reduce the use of PFAS - which, among other things, has been noticed by the Swedish Chemicals Agency, one of the authorities involved in developing the broad PFAS restriction proposal and it is of the utmost importance that that proposal goes through.

At RISE, we plan to continue the work initiated in the POPFREE projects and in collaboration with different industries find, develop, and evaluate alternative solutions to PFAS. 

Read more about Forever Pollution project

• Forever Pollution project
• Le Mondes article and map
• The Guardians article and map
• Stockholm Universities comments to Forever Pollution

Read more about PFAS 

• SubC news about the broad PFAS restriction proposal
• PFAS restriction proposal at ECHA website
• KemIs information about PFAS
• Stockholm Universites pod about PFAS
• Global danger: Threatened and endangered species at risk from PFAS exposure
• PFAS levels and determinants of variability in exposure in European teenagers – Results from the HBM4EU aligned studies (2014–2021)

Get in touch with Lisa Skedung or Tonie Wickman if you want to collaborate on PFAS phasing out.