Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) represent a group of thousands of chemicals, with hundreds used commercially across many sectors of industry and society. There is increasing evidence of the occurrence of PFAS in the environment alongside growing concern regarding the risks to human health. I am pleased action has already been taken to ban or highly restrict specific PFAS both domestically and internationally. However, PFAS represent a very diverse group of chemicals with a wide range of uses which makes this a very challenging issue to tackle.
The UK has its own regulatory framework through UK REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals). Through UK REACH, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) asked the Environment Agency and the Health and Safety Executive to examine the risk posed by PFAS and develop a Regulatory Management Options Analysis.
Following this, Defra said that it would work to reduce the amount of PFAS entering the water environment through developing a UK REACH restriction proposal on PFAS in firefighting foams. I understand that Defra has been considering further measures on other uses of PFAS, including consumer products such as textiles, cleaning products, paints and varnishes.
I am aware that the Drinking Water Inspectorate’s (DWI) guideline value on PFAS of 100 nanograms per litre was agreed with the UK Health Security Agency to be a robust level with an appropriate margin to ensure our drinking water is safe to drink. There is no evidence of PFAS concentrations above this value in drinking water supplies. The DWI has provided further direction to water companies to develop appropriate and focused strategies to protect drinking water supplies and work is continuing across Government to help assess levels of PFAS occurring in the environment, their sources and potential risks to inform future policy and regulatory approaches.
Finally, the Government has been developing a Chemicals Strategy to frame the work being done to improve chemicals management, setting out the priorities and principles for taking regulatory action to protect human health and the environment, as well as the approach to PFAs. I will be following this closely and keep constituents updated on any developments.
