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PFAS response MR(download here)
Media Statement, 11th June 2024
The Australian Federal Labor Government must urgently establish a full independent inquiry into the extent, management and response to PFAS contamination in Australia.
It is clear that Australia has a major PFAS problem. It’s in our drinking water, our materials production systems and waste, our environment and wildlife and in the bodies of our citizens (especially fire fighters), with significant concerns for pregnant women and babies.
The previous Federal government has failed to acknowledge the science and evidence of harm to human health. The Federal Labor government must now act to address this major regulatory failure for the long-term benefit of Australian public health and the environment.
As recent as 7th June 2024 the Australian government has reiterated that PFAS exposure in Australia has little to no impact on human health.
As the 2017 appointed Expert Health Panel on PFAS reported to the Minister for Health Greg Hunt, “After considering all the evidence, the Panel’s advice to the Minister on this public health issue is that the evidence does not support any specific health or disease screening or other health interventions for highly exposed groups in Australia, except for research purposes. Decisions and advice by public health officials about regulating or avoiding specific PFAS chemicals should be mainly based on scientific evidence about the persistence and build-up of these chemicals.”
Scandalously, it appears that the Expert Panel on Health suggests that the Australian government should continue to use PFAS chemicals and regulate them only in relation to their persistency and accumulation and not their known health impacts.
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith (IPEN PFAS expert) warns, “ In July 2022, in response to human epidemiology data, U.S. regulators updated lifetime health advisory (LHA) guidelines for four PFAS and concluded that for PFOA and PFOS, some negative health effects may occur at concentrations that are near zero and below our ability to detect at this time.(1)
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) reacted to the growing evidence and in 2020, lowered the recommended tolerable intake of PFOA by over 2,000-fold compared to 2008. They set a new safety threshold for PFAS accumulating in the human body which denotes that people should consume no more than 4.4 nanograms of PFAS per kilogram of body weight per week. In comparison, Australians are told they can tolerate far more PFAS in their bodies, in fact 280 times more or 1260ng/ nanograms per kilogram of body weight per week.
In 2021, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reduced their PFOA-reference dose by over 13,000-fold compared to 2016. They significantly reduced their Health Advisory levels for PFAS in drinking water to parts per trillion range (PFOA 0.004 ng/L, PFOS 0.02 ng/L). A similar trend is seen for GenX (a PFAS commonly used as a replacement for PFOA), for which the EPA lowered the reference dose 26-fold in 2021 compared to 2018.
In comparison, Australian water guidelines remain at 70 nanograms per litre (ng/L) for combined PFOS/PFHxS and 560 ng /L of PFOA. In defiance of the evidence of harm, Australian governments also increased the ‘acceptable’ levels for PFAS in recreational waters, rivers, creeks and lakes. Australia’s Recreational Water Quality Value for PFOS/PFHxS levels were doubled to 2,000 ng/L and PFOA 10,000 ng/L. In comparison, the EU restrict PFOS in inland surface water to 0.65ng/L.”
Australian citizens deserve better. It is untenable that our government advisors appear at odds with other comparable jurisdictions on the safety and science related to PFAS chemicals. These Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are a growing concern for our health and environment. They risk poisoning the Circular Economy and there is already evidence of harm to wildlife and biodiversity. As global scientists warn, … “the safe operating space of the planetary boundary of novel entities is exceeded since annual production and releases are increasing at a pace that outstrips the global capacity for assessment and monitoring.” (2)
Novel entities = synthetic chemicals, synthetic organic pollutants, radioactive materials, genetically modified organisms, nanomaterials, and/or micro-plastics.
For more information:
Ms Jane Bremmer 0432041397
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith – 0413621557
Mr Lee Bell – 0417196604
Ref –
- Drinking Water Health Advisories for PFOA and PFOS, https://www.epa.gov/sdwa/drinking-water-healthadvisories-pfoa-and-pfos
- Outside the Safe Operating Space of the Planetary Boundary for Novel Entities, Environ. Sci. Technol. 2022, 56, 3, 510-512
