THE PRACTITIONER'S COMPANION
Thursday 12 December 2024

Dozens of ‘forever chemicals’ yet to be assessed

Parliamentary inquiry into the use of PFAS begins as calls grow for more transparency from the companies using them.

3 min read
Dozens of 'forever chemicals' yet to be assessed

ALMOST one-in-five “forever chemicals” have yet to be assessed by the federal government’s industrial chemical regulator.

A parliamentary inquiry into the use of per and polyfluoroalkyl substances – known as PFAS – has begun as calls grow for more transparency from the companies that use them.

The Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme told the inquiry 423 of the 522 PFAS chemicals in its inventory, or 81 per cent, had been assessed.

However, scheme executive director Graeme Barden said assessments had not been carried out on the other 99 chemicals.

 “If two chemicals were equally concerning from a toxicity perspective, and one is in use in Australia and one is not, we’ll focus on the one that is,” he said.

“Those mechanisms they’re ongoing, and indeed, we have some PFAS chemicals that are going through that prioritisation process at the moment.”

The scheme does not have a specific deadline for when all of the chemicals in its inventory, which includes non-PFAS substances, would be assessed, but Mr Barden said it was hoped to be completed by the end of the decade.

Thousands of PFAS chemicals have been created, with uses ranging from firefighting foam to non-stick cookware.

Australian Conveyancer highlighted the dangers in a special report earlier this year entitled ‘What on Earth is Under Us?’ which highlighted there are 260,000 potential toxic hotspots around Australia.

Lotsearch founder Howard Waldren, who spent a decade creating maps of polluted sites, said: “This inquiry shows why it is so important to ensure all areas of due diligence are covered.

“It’s not just PFAS that’s potentially deadly. “As we highlighted in the “What on Earth Is Under Us?” special report, Australia is peppered with more than 250,000 potentially deadly sites.”

Concerns over potential health risks from exposure to PFAS chemicals, such as cancer, continue to be raised.

There is limited evidence of human disease or other clinically significant harm resulting from PFAS exposure.

Division head at the federal environment department Kate Lynch said PFAS chemicals were used in a wide range of areas.

“PFAS use through the economy is pretty broadly spread at the moment,” she told the inquiry.

“In terms of difficulty in ceasing their use … different PFAS are used in different contexts for a wide range of different products that are sold in Australia.

“It’s important to acknowledge that they’re prevalent in the environment at the moment.” CSIRO executive director Peter Mayfield said it was not as simple as replacing PFAS chemicals with other substances.

“There has been a move away and that’s going to continue, the idea is substitution and removal,” he said.

“The real challenge area is don’t put something in its place that’s worse. I think we need to make sure of that.” UNSW Sydney professor Denis O’Carroll said the use of PFAS in the environment was pervasive.

He told the inquiry that companies which produce the chemicals should be more transparent about what is included in the substances.

“There’s more PFAS out there that potentially we should be concerned about,” he said.

“It would be useful … to the scientific community if (companies) were compelled to provide information collaboratively with us. “It really would help us get a sense of the environmental burden and the human health burden of PFAS out there.”


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