Perfluorinated compounds: Avoid inputs - protect the environment | Umweltbundesamt

The reports about perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) in the environment keep coming and coming. Recent occurrences of these compounds in wastewater treatment plants, bodies of water, in drinking water, in indoor air, and in human blood in particular have kept public debate lively. Although toxicologically critical concentrations have only occurred in a few incidents, ”perfluorinated compounds in the environment, drinking water, and blood are cause for concern, not least because they are often found in locations quite remote from the products treated with perfluorinated chemicals. These xenobiotics clearly do not belong in the environment and much less in human blood,” commented Dr. Thomas Holzmann, Vice President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) upon the publication of the Perfluorierte Verbindungen: Einträge vermeiden - Umwelt schützen [Perfluorinated compounds: avoid inputs - protect the environment] document. As concerns protection of human health, UBA and the Drinking Water Commission (TWK) recommend compliance with an acceptable lifetime drinking water guideline value of 0.3 microgrammes PFC per litre of water. The experts propose a maximum annual mean value of 0.1 microgrammes PFC per litre. read more