“Each Swiss has PFAS in the body” and it’s serious

“Each Swiss has PFAS in the body” and it’s serious


Each Swiss has PFAS in the body.

We find the PFAS in many objects, including the stoves.Image: KEYSTONE

PFAS is everywhere. Present in a lot of everyday objects, these chemical pollutants accumulate in the environment and in our bodies, causing serious health problems.

Alberto Silini

At the end of the past month, Greenpeace revealed that “millions” of Italians were exposed to carcinogenic substances very present in drinking water. These are PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances), chemicals used on a large scale since the late 1950s.

Difficult to degrade, these substances are extremely persistent when they find themselves in the environment or in our organism. For this reason, they are also called “eternal pollutants”. “Unlike other subjects, which are eliminated from the moment that we are no longer exposed, the PFAS accumulates and remain in the body,” explains Nathalie Chèvre, toxicologist at the University of Lausanne.

“In addition, we are constantly exposed. PFAS is literally everywhere, ”she adds.

“Each Swiss has PFAS in their organization. A study of unisanté has shown that at least two of these substances are found, the PFOA and the PFOS, in our blood ”

Nathalie Chèvre

A survey distributed in 2023 recorded more than 17,000 contaminated sites in Europe, including some 300 in Switzerland. “We have used these substances for so long and in so many different areas that such pollution is not surprising,” reacts the researcher.

Present in a lot of objects

Some sites are more polluted than others, she explains. This is particularly the case for training areas for firefighters, because certain anti-firmed mosses contain PFAS. The regions where skiing and mountaineering can also be affected, since these substances are found in waterproof clothes that are used in the mountains, as well as in the Fart of skis. The shooting places and industries are also one of these large sources of pollution.

Certain anti-fire foam contains PFAS.

Certain anti-fire foam contains PFAS.Image: EPA

Above all, the PFASs are present in countless everyday objects: teflon stoves to clothes, from plastic fabrics. “Each time you shower, the water detaches part of the PFAS that put on your shower curtain,” illustrates Nathalie Chèvre.

“These substances leave in wastewater and can be found in surface waters. On the scale of a city, that makes quite significant quantities ”

Nathalie Chèvre

“Many PFASs are also issued in the air, especially inside the apartments, where there are many of them,” continues the toxicologist. Some stand out from plastics and coatings and find themselves in the air in the form of dust. Others are contained in certain products, such as spray to waterproof shoes.

Once in the environment, these substances move a lot, transported by oceanic and atmospheric currents.

“The PFAS issued within the framework of the war in Ukraine will not remain only in the border region with Russia. These pollutants will distribute elsewhere in Europe, or even further. ”

Nathalie Chèvre

This mobility implies that populations living very far from emission areas are often the most exposed.

Fertility and cancer problems

The consequences on health are serious. The European Environment Agency indicates that these substances can cause problems such as liver damage, thyroid diseases, obesity, fertility problems and cancers. Several harmful effects are proven for certain PFASs, completes the Federal Office for Food Security, which adds that knowledge in the matter is, however, still incomplete.

Nathalie Chèvre recalls that when we talk about PFAS, we speak of 14,000 different substances, which have a different toxicity and which behave differently in the environment. “To analyze their effects, you have to focus on each of these substances specifically”.

If the consequences of the PFASs are not yet fully known, the technologies to extract them from nature are even less so. “Many companies and start-ups are now starting to explore solutions, but we are in the beginnings,” says Nathalie Chèvre.

“Methods allowing us to remedy the problem have not yet been developed”

Nathalie Chèvre

One thing is certain: the invoice will be salty. The SRF has calculated that cleaning the PFASs could cost up to 26 billion francs in Switzerland in the next twenty years. At European level, the bill could increase to 100 billion per year, according to the Monde. For French daily life, this pollution constitutes “a perfect disaster, dystopian in all its dimensions”.

Difficult to act

“The first thing to do would be to stop producing them and to use them, except in cases where it would be absolutely necessary,” recommends Nathalie Chèvre, who cites the example of the clothes used by surgeons. Other times, she believes, “this is additional comfort that we could do without”.

The problem is that IGI at the individual level is very difficult. “If you want to eat pesticide -free foods, you can buy organic, seasonal or local vegetables,” explains the toxicologist. “Avining the PFAS is much more complicated. Most times, there is no possibility of knowing whether a given product contains or not. ”

“According to an American study, we find PFAS even in toilet paper. Except that no toilet paper mentions this on the packaging ”

Nathalie Chèvre

There are products that are declared without pfas. However, Nathalie Chèvre concludes, you still have to know what they were replaced by.

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