RIVM: almost everyone in the Netherlands has too much PFAS in their blood
Everyone in the Netherlands has PFAS in their blood, says the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Moreover, almost everyone has too much of it and the amounts exceed the so-called medical limit value, according to research into 1500 blood samples from 2016 and 2017. Above that limit value, effects on the immune system cannot be ruled out, says the RIVM.
For years it has been clear that the Dutch ingest too much PFAS, mainly through food and also a little through drinking water. Now, for the first time, national research has been conducted into the amount of PFAS in the blood.
PFAS are a group of thousands of chemical substances that do not break down in nature: the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They affect the immune system and some types are carcinogenic with long-term exposure. The chemicals end up in the environment because factories discharge or emit them. They are also found in, for example, fire-fighting foam and lubricants.
Not immediately ill Although everyone has PFAS in their blood, the type of PFAS does matter where someone lives. In residents of the Dordrecht region, where the Chemours factory emitted PFOA for decades, this PFAS variant was found more often than the average in the Netherlands. And around the Western Scheldt, where chemical company 3M in the Belgian Zwijndrecht discharged thousands of kilos of PFAS via the Scheldt each year, the amount of the PFOS variant was higher.
The RIVM is quick to add that the results of the blood test do not mean that everyone becomes ill from PFAS. "The effects depend on the amount of PFAS, the duration of exposure and someone's personal health situation. The RIVM cannot say at this time what the amounts found in the blood samples mean exactly for the health of the Dutch population."
Bright spot Because PFAS are all around us, it is virtually impossible for people not to ingest them, says RIVM researcher Joke Herremans. "That is actually only possible if companies ensure that fewer substances end up in the environment."
The Netherlands, together with four other European countries, has taken the initiative to ban PFAS everywhere in Europe. According to Herremans, that could help in the long term. "Since the substance PFOS was banned in 2008, we have already seen the amount in the blood decrease in research in France. That is a ray of hope."
Herremans and her colleagues are conducting follow-up research on blood samples from this year. "We hope to find that the level is also decreasing."