Domestic Mineral Water Contaminated with Eternal Chemical
The contamination with the eternal chemical is primarily caused by the use of certain agricultural pesticides (PFAS pesticides), Burtscher-Schaden said on Tuesday at an online press conference. Therefore, their waste product TFA can also be found in seemingly well-protected mineral water sources.
Evidence of Eternal Chemical Found in Numerous Mineral Water Bottlers in Europe
Environmentalists from Global 2000 and the European Pesticide Action Network (PAN Europe) took mineral water samples from original packaged bottles from bottlers in Austria, Germany, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Hungary in the spring of 2024. They then had an analysis carried out to see if TFA was contained in it. This substance belongs to the per- and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds, or PFAS, which are increasingly being banned in the European Union due to many harmful health effects. It is the "terminal degradation product" of about 2,000 PFAS and is considered an "eternal chemical" due to its great persistence, according to Burtscher-Schaden.
TFA was detectable in ten out of nineteen bottlers. "TFA has already found its way into the supposedly protected from anthropogenic (human-caused, note) pollutants, often hundreds of meters deep groundwater bodies from which our mineral waters originate," the environmental organizations said in a statement. However, the quantities are not harmful to health: Even with a high daily consumption of two liters of the most contaminated mineral water (from Belgium), the health guidelines applicable in the European Union would not be exceeded in an adult.
Eternal Chemical: Bottlers Wanted to Prevent Publication of Results
TFA was also detectable in two out of five tested Austrian mineral water types. The consequences of these contaminations could be existential for mineral water bottlers, said Burtscher-Schaden: "As a rule, they also have little influence on ensuring the protection of their water resources themselves, but are dependent on the necessary measures being implemented by the authorities". The affected bottlers have also expressed a "clear demand not to publish the results" to the environmental protection organization, said the chemist: "In one case, we were even threatened with legal action to protect the reputation of the affected brand and to receive compensation for the damage suffered". However, for reasons of transparency, they would still publish the results in full, according to a factsheet from Global 2000. For safety, all mineral waters with measurable residues were examined a second time. "In all cases, the results confirmed the initial analysis," said the environmental protection organization.
(APA/Red)
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