Parliament is called to examine a law decree urgentapproved by the Council of Ministers on March 13, which establishes New limits for PFAS (Poly and perfluoroalchilic compounds) in potable waters and for the TFA (trifluoroacetic acid), one of the most common molecules among the PFAS and so far unregulated.
The measure comes after the spread of the Greenpeace Italy survey, “waters without poisons”, which revealed the widespread contamination of the waters in all Italian regions, and represents a significant step in the fight against contamination from Pfas.
We talked about it here: is your tap water safe? The first map of the contamination from PFAS of the Italian Potable Waters
The text, now being examined by parliamentary commissions, introduces limits for the “sum of 4 pfas” (Pfoa, Pfos, Pfna and PFHXS), setting them to 20 nanograms per liter, a value that aligns Italy to Germany, but is still far from the most restrictive limits of countries such as Denmark and Sweden, which have fixed them respectively to 2 and 4 nanograms per liter.
Finally the government listened to the scientific community and the voices that ask for concrete interventions – comments Giuseppe Hungarian, head of the Greenpeace Italy pollution campaign. This decree is a good start, but Parliament must do more to ensure the protection of public health. It is necessary to further reduce the limits to bring them closer to the safety threshold, which should be the technical zero. The next step must be a law that prohibits the use and production of PFAS.
The decree also introduces the monitoring of other PFAS molecules, including those produced by the former Solvay of Alessandria (today Syensqo), and establishes a limit for the TFA equal to 10 micrograms per liter. Greenpeace had already detected the presence of TFA in Italian waters, a compound not regulated so far. The association continues its struggle to protect human health and the environment from the dangers of these persistent pollutants.
The decree law on the PFAS is finally the step forward we were waiting for and that for a long time we asked together with the decisive pressure of civil society – the vice -president of the Chamber, Hon. Sergio Costa, has said. The limit identified by the government, of 20 nanograms per liter, aligned with the German one, is not enough. Italy, especially in some regions, has a particularly exposed and contaminated population. It is no coincidence that in the years in which I was minister we came to a text that proposed the virtual zero for the potable waters, of aquake from which private and irrigation wells draw. Text then not approved for the fall of the government, but it is to that limit that we must tend. We will work in the Commission to make approval and the text adhering to the request for maximum protection for citizens.
