In April 2024, the deputies approved at first reading a bill drafted by the ecologist deputy of a Gironde constituency, Nicolas Thierry, aiming to restrict the manufacture and sale of products containing PFAS or " eternal pollutants". The text is submitted on February 20 for a final vote after many stages, including a dissolution which put a stop to the process of back and forth between the National Assembly and the Senate. If this text is finally adopted, without modification, it would provide, according to its author and rapporteur, the " "most ambitious regulation on eternal pollutants".
PFAS, awareness of the extent of pollution
PFAS are chemical molecules fully synthetic and with multiple properties number in the tens of thousands. They are used in the form of treatments and coatings for other materials to make them resistant to water, fire, light, grease, acids, bacteria, etc. An investigation into the health impacts in the Lyon Chemistry Valley broadcast in the program Special Envoy in May 2022, the veil was lifted for the first time on pollution around the Arkema and Daikin factories, manufacturers of PFAS.
Local residents and the public are suddenly becoming aware of the risk: these "eternal pollutants" are persistent in the environment and have a harmful effect on our organisms. THE link between these PFAS and the prevalence of certain cancers continues to grow stronger. However, only one of these molecules, PFOA, is classified as a “ carcinogenic to humans " by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO) for the moment. The entire French population is impregnated to varying degrees of these fluorinated compounds.
The agenda of a law " to cut off the pollution tap »
On February 20, the law " aimed at protecting the population from the risks associated with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances " returns to the National Assembly, with the hope for those who support it, parliamentarians, citizens' groups, NGOs and scientists, that it will not undergo any amendments. This bill is " one of the most ambitious regulations on PFAS.” “ The real issue,” Nicolas Thierry insists, " is to have a text adopted on February 20, according to the version approved in May by the Senate. Opponents can submit amendments as a stalling strategy. A slight modification of this law, even marginally, will amount to condemning it for an indefinite period"We remember the pot-fights carried out by employees of the manufacturer SEB a few steps from the National Assembly and the discussions of parliamentarians last April which had weighed in the removal of kitchen utensils from the text of the law.
The text is going through an accelerated procedure with a deadline for submitting amendments set for this Saturday, February 8 at 5 p.m. before being presented again in the chamber. As a reminder, the text began its parliamentary journey through the Senate in May 2024 when the government was dissolved, causing concern among environmental associations and local citizen groups.
What does the proposed law contain?
The text of the law has been weakened during the various readings, but remains a decisive step forward, explained the MP during the press conference organized on the occasion of World Cancer Day, February 4, 2025.
- The ban targets not just a few molecules but the entire PFAS family.
- The text makes the detection of these PFAS in drinking water mandatory throughout the national territory. From 1er January 2026, each Member State of the European Union will have to measure 20 perfluorinated substances in its drinking water. French government services will not be limited to these twenty compounds. They will be able to recommend the search for other molecules depending on the sites and the nature of their industrial activities.
- The text prefers to target by essential and non-essential uses in order to give manufacturers time to adapt their manufacturing processes for manufactured objects that require the advantages currently provided by PFAS: medical devices, technical textiles, semiconductors, industrial lubricants, refrigerants, etc.
Employees, managers and union members of TEFAL belonging to the SEB group on April 18, 2024 on the Place des Invalides, a few meters from the National Assembly. The anti-PFAS bill targets non-stick cookware. Credit Alain Jocard/AFP
- Lobbying by the industrialist SEB had made it possible removal of kitchen utensils but the text of the law maintains prohibitions for a series of objects, enough to reduce the health risk for a wide public: everyday clothing, shoes, ski waxing products. Added to this are cosmetics that behave as endocrine disruptors - " a devastating effect » – in increasingly younger women, and in the midst of puberty.
- Financing the decontamination of sites will not be the sole responsibility of local authorities; the State will support them with its public policies.
- PFAS producers will have to pay a fee each time they release them into the environment, the amount is set at 100 euros per 100 grams and from a threshold of 100 grams released. Relatively low values, recognizes the Girondin MP, but " This is about enshrining the principle in law, so that these amounts can be adjusted subsequently.".
An ultra-short molecular chain PFAS is not forgotten by the law to be voted on
Absent from the lists established by European agencies, TFA, trifluoroacetic acid, is beginning to cause concern. Its presence in drinking water was highlighted in January 2025 at unexpected levels in several French cities. However, this molecule does not appear in the list of 20 PFAS that European states are preparing to look for in their drinking water, we repeat, from 1er January 2026. Trifluoroacetic acid will also be a challenge for water treatment units: conventional processes such as activated carbon or membrane filtration do not retain it.
Some suggest that a more expensive process would be needed to get rid of it: reverse osmosis. This ultra-short chain PFAS is both a raw material used in the manufacture of other PFAS and final disintegration product of these in the environment. It is omnipresent, and in greater quantities than other so-called “historical” PFAS.
Volunteers from the NGO Générations futures take water samples in Salindres, in the Gard, near the site of the chemical industrialist Solvay, a manufacturer of PFAS, on April 18, 2024 - Credit Pascal Guyot/AFP
What future projects are there to reduce the population’s exposure to PFAS?
After the adoption of the law, according to the MP, it will be necessary to focus on historical pollution sites and the protection of subcontracted employees in the chemical industry. Aqueous discharges are currently receiving all the attention, but aerial discharges are another cause for concern. The government also has the task of drawing up a trajectory for ending the discharge of PFAS over 5 years.
The Gironde MP is concerned to note a certain " porosity between industrial lobbies and political leaders, who listen to the pleas of industrialists without any distance and to the detriment of public health. We need to renew the rules that govern the links between elected officials, ministers and lobbies; the first lobby in France should be that of the health of the French people".
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