Pharma, agri companies face threat of EU ban on some ‘forever chemicals’

By Leonie Cater and Carlo Martuscelli | POLITICO | September 4, 2023

Read the full article by Leonie Cater and Carlo Martuscelli (POLITICO)

"Pharmaceutical and agrichemical companies run the potential risk of being banned from using some harmful "forever chemicals" that linger in the environment, after a European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) committee cast doubt on their right to have a sweeping exemption.

The two heavyweight EU sectors would escape a ban on at least 10,000 toxic chemicals, proposed earlier this year by Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. The chemicals in the crosshairs are known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

But a draft opinion from ECHA's Committee for Socio-Economic Analysis, dated July 5 and obtained by POLITICO, says the arguments for excluding these industries from a bloc-wide ban on PFAS — also known as forever chemicals — are "at the moment not fully justified and inconsistent for several reasons."