European environment ministers underwent blood testing for ‘forever chemicals’ on Thursday in a publicity exercise to highlight the alarming reach of the toxic substances.
“I’m hoping to bring awareness to this problem,” Danish Minister for the Environment Magnus Heunicke told POLITICO. “This is causing really serious problems to our health and to our environment. We need to actually ban PFAS in our everyday products throughout the EU.”
Denmark orchestrated the group test during a meeting of EU environment ministers in the northern Danish city of Aalborg. The country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
PFAS substances — commonly known as forever chemicals — don’t break down naturally and have been shown to accumulate in the environment and cause a host of health conditions, including cancer, liver damage and decreased fertility. Most people in the world have some level of PFAS in their blood.
A recent Dutch study found that everyone in the Netherlands had PFAS in their blood. In most cases, levels exceeded the health-based limit, which, though not immediately harmful, can have negative impacts such as a weaker immune system.
“I expect that they’ll find PFAS in my blood, because this is [forever] chemicals, and I expect it … to be in my colleagues’ blood as well,” said Heunicke. “But how much and which [types of] PFAS — that’s the interesting thing.”
Of the ministers invited to get their blood tested, nearly 20 have accepted so far, according to a preliminary list shared with POLITICO, including the French, German, Dutch, Belgian and Hungarian ministers, and European Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall.
Delegates will still be able to get their blood tested on Friday, the last day of the two-day meeting. The results will come in after the summer.
Denmark is one of five European countries that sent a joint proposal to the European Commission to phase out thousands of PFAS chemicals under EU chemicals law back in 2023. That proposal — which is currently in the hands of the European Chemicals Agency — has come under fire from industry groups, many of which are calling for exemptions to the potential law.
Roswall has stated that the Commission will propose phasing out consumer uses of PFAS and exempt certain critical industries, which are yet to be defined.
PFAS are involved in the production processes of several critical industries, including the semiconductor, battery and pharmaceutical sectors.
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