110 Of 117 UK Bodies Of Water Tested Revealed PFAS Contamination Above Proposed Safety Level

[hatrack]

Nearly all rivers, lakes and ponds in England tested for a range of Pfas, known as “forever chemicals”, exceed proposed new safety limits and 85% contain levels at least five times higher, analysis of official data reveals. Out of 117 water bodies tested by the Environment Agency for multiple types of Pfas, 110 would fail the safety standard, according to analysis by Wildlife and Countryside Link and the Rivers Trust.

They also found levels of Pfos – a banned carcinogenic Pfas – in fish were on average 322 times higher than planned limits for wildlife. If just one portion of such freshwater fish was eaten each month this would exceed the safe threshold of Pfos for people to consume over a year, according to the NGOs.

Pfas, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a group of thousands of human-made chemicals used in industrial processes and products such as non-stick pans, clothing and firefighting foams. They do not break down in the environment and some are linked to diseases, including cancers and hormone disruption.

Pfas pollution is widespread, prompting the EU to propose a new water quality standard that limits the combined toxicity of 24 Pfas to 4.4 nanograms per litre of water, calculated as PFOA-equivalents – a method that weights each substance according to its toxicity relative to PFOA, a particularly hazardous and well-studied carcinogen that is now banned.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jul/11/toxic-pfas-above-proposed-safety-limits-in-almost-all-english-waters-tested

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. "... at least five times higher ..."

That sort of wording always catches my attention.
https://www.wcl.org.uk/action-on-forever-chemicals-to-prevent-a-forever-problem.asp

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The launch coincides with the publication of new analysis of official Environment Agency data, which reveals an increase in harmful PFAS pollution in rivers across England in the last two years. The new analysis by the Rivers Trust and Wildlife and Countryside Link reveals that:

• PFAS pollution detection rates in rivers is consistently high with an apparent increase in the last two years.
• 94% of English rivers where forever chemicals have been tested for in combination (110 out of 117 sites in the last 6 years) would fail proposed new EU safety standards for PFAS in surface water. This is up from 77% (81 out of 105) of river sites where PFAS combinations were found in data analysed in February 2023.
• 85% of these river sites where PFAS combinations were found exceed proposed EU safety levels by at least 5 times the recommended limit. With almost half (47%) at 10 times or more the proposed threshold.
• Slight increase in limits detected in freshwater fish: Levels of just one toxic PFAS forever chemical – Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) in English freshwater fish have also risen. With levels on average 322 times higher than proposed new EU safe levels for wildlife, an increase from 301 times the proposed threshold which was detected in 2023. If just one portion of these freshwater fish were eaten per month this would exceed the safe threshold of PFOS for people to consume over a year

In the last week environment groups, co-ordinated by the Marine Conservation Society, have also written to ministers urging a ban on all PFAS in consumer products and a commitment to a clear timeline for phasing them out across all other uses. And in the first ever research on the presence of the highly persistent and mobile PFAS Trifluoroacetic Acid (TFA) in UK rivers, Fidra revealed that 98% of river sites tested were contaminated, with one site in Glasgow recording the second highest level of TFA ever documented globally.

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