Samples have revealed high levels of Trifluoroacetic acid in ten European countries' water supplies.
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00:00 The Mehenya River in Belgium is one of the most TFA polluted rivers in the EU, according
00:08 to a survey carried out by NGO Pan Europe in 10 EU member states.
00:15 Chemical substance meets the definition of a persistent pollutant or forever chemical.
00:20 Based on 23 samples taken from surface and groundwater, the Mehenya River is the third
00:26 most polluted river after the Elbe and the Seine.
00:33 The Mehenya River is a river that is highly contaminated, which is not well monitored.
00:40 What we are trying to highlight here is a contamination that remained under the radar, and which is a contamination that we can qualify as widespread.
00:48 We are next to a watercourse that crosses an agricultural zone, but which is not, for example, next to large industrial sites that could cause a particular contamination.
01:01 The NGO believes that TFA has toxic effects similar to those of other persistent organic pollutants, which can cause prenatal malformations.
01:12 It has called for a ban on sources of these substances and other pesticides.
01:17 The issue of water quality is one of the themes of European Green Week, which runs until Thursday in Brussels.
01:24 For the Belgian Minister for Climate Transition, the response must be radical.
01:31 We must move towards a progressive phasing out of their marketing.
01:37 Frankly, I don't see how we could get rid of PFAS other than by stopping producing it in nature.
01:45 The meetings in Brussels are an opportunity for some participants to call for an overhaul of water management on a European scale.
01:58 We need to have a real new approach in managing the water ecosystem, I would say, with a real comprehensive new policy.
02:12 Because all the components of our society, citizens, farmers, industries, have different aims, different needs,
02:21 but we need to combine in a single, in a single, with a single approach, the water management.
02:29 For the time being, Pan Europe stresses that TFAs are too small to be filtered using current techniques.
02:38 [WHOOSH]