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There are pfas even in the blood of European ministers

Analyses conducted at the informal meeting of EU environment ministers show the presence of pfas in the veins of some politicians. This is revealed by the work carried out by two European NGOs, European environmental bureau and ChemSec. Data from the Italian Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, who was absent from the meeting, are missing

Laura FazziniGiornalista

7 ottobre 2025

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It was enough to collect a drop of blood before a meeting of environment ministers to prove that pfas also circulates in the veins of European politicians.This was discovered by the NGO European environmental bureau, Europe's largest network of environmental organisations, and ChemSec, an independent organisation promoting the replacement of toxic chemicals with safer alternatives, in cooperation with the Danish Ministry of the Environment.On 10 and 11 July, at the informal meeting between EU environment ministers in Aalborg, Denmark, they stopped EU ministers, undersecretaries and commissioners to take a drop of blood and look for 13 pfas, including the carcinogens pfoa and pfos.

Among the participants, as many as 24 politicians from 19 European countries, including EU Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall and Danish Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke, were found to be contaminated with these endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can cause serious health problems. For half of the politicians tested, the contamination exceeded levels above which health repercussions cannot be ruled out. Among the blood samples, however, the Italian minister, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, was missing.

"We are working to ban the use of pfas in consumer products and, where safer alternatives exist, these should be used. We need to reduce the use of pfas and clean our environment of these 'forever chemicals'," said EU Commissioner Roswall.

Pfas are also in wine, Europe on alert

Which pfas were searched for and why

Pfos was found in all samples, reaching 18 nanograms per millilitre in one politician, a very high level. Since 2009, when it was included in the Stockholm Convention and later in the Register of Hazardous Pollutants (called Pops), the production and use of this compound has been banned. Its presence can only be explained by the typical characteristics of these compounds, formed by chains of pairs of carbon and fluorine atoms, persistence and bioaccumulation: once it enters living organisms, whether plant or animal, pfos is not destroyed and its quantity halves every five years.

All the politicians have values above two nanograms per millilitre, a threshold indicated by the National academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine (Nasem), which indicates the range 2-20 nanograms as indicative limits for possible health effects.

Furthermore, half of the people tested had pfas levels above the health reference value of 6.9 nanogram per millilitre established by a European study for combined exposure to pfoa, pfna, pfhxs and pfos.

The Italian government wants stricter limits for Pfas in drinking water

Bans reduce exposure, hope and political action

"PFAS pollution is a fundamental public health issue. This only strengthens my determination to continue working for more decisive action at the European level."Jessika Roswall - European Commissioner for the Environment

Leena Ylä-Mononen, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, however, is an example of how banning these substances and reducing their presence in our environments is the right way forward. In the months leading up to the July sampling, Finnish politicians had already undergone analysis and the values published today show a decline in all contaminants: 'Harmful chemicals are present in our food, water and everyday products, but we can act to protect the health of Europeans and nature. We must also promote safe and sustainable chemicals and phase out the most harmful ones,' explains the report presented by Eeb, ChemSec and the Danish Ministry of the Environment.

The latter is among the initiators of the call for a total ban on pfas, promoted by five member states from 2023 and now undergoing a second analysis by the technical bodies of the European Commission. After an initial public consultation, the technicians' work was slowed down in 2024 by the more than five thousand comments made on the proposal, raising the hopes of the lobby of the industries that produce and use these substances.

But European Environment Commissioner Roswall, after receiving the report of her own blood tests showing the presence of six compounds, declared that 'pfas pollution is a key public health issue. This only strengthens my determination to continue working for more incisive action at European level'.

And the Italian politicians? The organisations that promoted the initiative could not test the blood of the Italian Minister of the Environment, Pichetto Fratin. The reason? He was not present at the informal meeting in Denmark because he was busy in Rome at the conference on reconstruction in Ukraine. And to say that it would have been interesting: precisely in the Forza Italia politician's region, Piedmont, there is major contamination around the plant of one of the last producers of these carcinogens, Syensqo Solvay.

This article was translated by Kompreno with the support of DeepL

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