Contamination thought to stem from the heavy application of pesticides containing TFA, a type of PFAS

Mineral water from several European nations has been found for the first time to be contaminated with TFA, a type of PFAS “forever chemical” that is a reproductive toxicant accumulating at alarming levels across the globe.

The finding is startling because mineral water should be pristine and insulated from manmade chemicals. The contamination is thought to stem from the heavy application of pesticides containing TFA, or compounds that turn into it in the environment, which are used throughout the world.

Pesticide Action Network Europe detected TFA in 10 out of 19 mineral waters, and at levels as much as 32 times above the threshold that should trigger regulatory action in the European Union. The findings underscore the need for “urgent action”, the paper’s authors wrote, and come as authorities there propose new limits for some TFA pesticide products.

  • skillissuerEnglish
    2·
    3 hours ago

    main source appears to be decomposition of fluorinated refrigerants, not breakdown of pesticides

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      1·
      2 hours ago

      The evidence agrees with you.

      Pickard, the Harvard University postdoc, said there are reasons not to compare TFA to many other PFAS based on current information about health risks. But she disputed the notion that most TFA in the environment is naturally occurring.

      While she was a master’s student at Memorial University in Canada, Pickard studied PFAS concentrations in ice cores in the Canadian Arctic. She first planned to measure for the “typical suite of PFAS” but decided to also look for very small forever chemicals like TFA, she said.

      In an ensuing 2020 research paper, she and other researchers found that TFA concentrations increased in the ice cores “with the exact timing” of when new refrigeration gases were introduced after the Montreal Protocol, she said. Signed in 1987, the treaty spurred nations to phase out ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), leading to the rise of new substances for refrigeration and cooling.

      “In these remote regions, I was basically able to say that TFA was coming from these CFC replacements,” Pickard said.

      https://www.eenews.net/articles/youve-probably-never-heard-of-this-forever-chemical-scientists-say-its-everywhere/