The text constitutes a major victory for ecologists towards the overall improvement of environmental health. The Senate passed a bill to limit eternal pollutants.
As part of the niche of the Ecologist Group – Solidarity and Territories in the Senate, the bill requesting to ban from 2026 the manufacture, import and sale of certain products intended for consumption containing PFAS was adopted at the almost unanimously by the upper house. This is a real environmental victory!
PFAS, also known as “perennial pollutants,” are chemical compounds used since the 1940s for their non-stick, waterproofing, heat-resistant and almost indestructible properties. These substances are found in many everyday products such as textiles, stoves, diapers, cosmetics, paints, medicines and fire-fighting foams. Their persistent presence in the environment and living organisms has raised serious public health concerns for many years. For example, PFOA is classified as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).
In order to expose the dangers and reveal its persistent presence in our body, the Ecologists party undertook a series of tests which turned out to be very revealing. 80% of drinking water points tested were contaminated and 100% of firefighters tested were also contaminated. Their profession being particularly exposed.
Started several months ago in the National Assembly by Nicolas Thierry, environmentalist deputy for Gironde, the fight against these pollutants continues. It is also thanks to the mobilization of citizens and environmental associations that this victory in the Senate is possible today.
This incredible mobilization will have been victorious.
Even if this text does not address all the concerns raised by PFAS, it represents a first step in the direction of a more responsible economy, improved environmental health and the polluter pays principle.
We regret that kitchen utensils are still excluded from the system, as are firefighting foams, which are a significant source of contamination for firefighters. This is the start of a long fight for a complete ban on PFAS. It’s just getting started!
“Today, we are sending a strong signal to Europe: it’s here, it’s irreversible, we will go all the way to ban PFAS, protect health and the environment,” declares Anne Souyris, co-head leader of the environmental group in the Senate.
“The phase-out of PFAS is now underway. A first step to turn off the tap, to initiate the decontamination of natural environments, while ensuring support for communities in this transition,” declares Jacques Fernique, co-leader of the environmental group in the Senate.
For this text, environmentalists will be mobilized so that the legislative process goes through to the end with a second reading in Parliament.
Aminata Niakaté and Sophie Bussière, spokesperson for Les Écologists
Nicolas Thierry, environmentalist deputy for Gironde
Anne Souyris, environmentalist senator from Paris
Jacques Fernique, environmentalist senator from Bas-Rhin
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