Poly and Perfluorinated Alkyl Substances (Guidance)

Munira Wilson Excerpts

1st reading
Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That leave be given to bring in a Bill to require the Chief Inspector of Drinking Water to issue guidance to water companies on poly and perfluorinated alkyl substances in drinking water; and for connected purposes.

Decreased fertility, thyroid disease, miscarriage, reduced sperm quality, cancer. What do all those conditions have in common? They have all been linked to the pervasive presence of PFAS—perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, better known as “forever chemicals”. PFAS are used to make materials heat, water, flame, or stain resistant. They are found in thousands of everyday products, from Teflon frying plans to raincoats to our toiletries. Their bond is one of the strongest in nature, able to stay intact for decades. In fact, those chemicals are so long-lasting that scientists have not yet been able reliably to identify how long it might take to break them down. Because they are so difficult to break down, once they get into our environment and our drinking water, PFAS can easily build up in our bodies. They can enter our bloodstream, and even be passed on to our children through breast milk. That has severe implications for intergenerational health. Studies have found that children exposed to PFAS build up are at increased risk of lower birth weight, weaker bones, and immune resistance to vaccinations.

PFAS chemicals are forever, and they are everywhere. These chemicals are in the water we drink, the clothes we wear, the food we eat and even in the rain that falls from our skies. PFAS affect every single one of us, young and old. PFAS are all-pervasive, which makes the scale of the challenge incredibly daunting, but we must start somewhere, and that is why I am calling for the Government to start with our drinking water. Despite all the alarming health risks I have just outlined, there is currently no statutory regulation of PFAS chemicals in England and Wales and no legal limit on the amount of PFAS present in our drinking water. There is only guidance that water is “wholesome” and a limit of 0.1 micrograms for only 47 out of the thousands of existing PFAS chemicals. It is fair to say that the presence of carcinogenic, non-degradable forever chemicals makes our water far from wholesome, and instead akin to a chemical cocktail that desperately needs regulation.

I should stress that these chemicals are synthetic, not natural. Before their manufacture started in the late 1940s, no PFAS were present in our environment. It is an injustice to future generations that they should have to suffer the consequences of exposure to these chemicals before they are even born. People may ask, “Are PFAS a threat to us here in the UK?” Yes, they are, and I have only to look at my constituency to see it.

The River Thames is at the beating heart of our community, where kayakers, paddle boarders and swimmers enjoy the river every day, yet the busy stretch of the River Thames in Teddington in my constituency had the sixth greatest concentration of PFAS in the UK between 2019 and 2022. It was 11 times above the safe level set out by the EU, whose standards I will come to later.

The Thames is a notoriously polluted river, but concerns about our local water quality increased following proposals by Thames Water to construct the Teddington direct river abstraction scheme, which would pump treated effluent into our precious waterway. It has been promised that the treated effluent would be the same quality as the river itself, yet there has been no assurance that compounds and chemicals such as PFAS would be filtered out.

When it comes to raw sewage spills, the Marine Conservation Society notes that there is no legal requirement for water companies to monitor for PFAS in sewer overflows. A study conducted by the University of Portsmouth found that following sewage discharges in Langstone harbour, the amount of one particular PFAS— perfluorobutanoic acid, or PFBA—in seaweed was more than 6,000 times higher than in the surrounding water.

Can we therefore rely on mere guidance to make water companies take steps to filter out these dangerous PFAS chemicals from our water? Sadly, I do not think so. Trust in water companies is at an all-time low, thanks to eye-watering bills, the billions of litres of water lost through leaks, sky-high bonuses and illegal sewage dumping. Against that backdrop, it is no surprise that people do not trust water companies to safeguard our water quality. It is my belief that these water companies will only take steps if we make them do so, with binding limits set in law.

Existing guidance has failed to restrict the presence of PFAS. According to the Wildlife and Countryside Link, not a single English river is in good chemical health. Analysis by the Royal Society of Chemistry has revealed that more than a third of watercourses in England and Wales contain medium or high-risk levels of PFAS, and just more than a third also contain two highly toxic PFAS that have been banned internationally. However, official monitoring data covers only a handful of PFAS chemicals and not all rivers are tested, so actual pollution levels could be even worse.

Although I welcome the new Government’s move to ban PFAS chemicals present in firefighting foams, which are a significant source of PFAS, further action is needed. The previous Government sat on their hands and ignored this emerging health threat, but as we discover more and more health risks from PFAS chemicals every day, it is clear that they must be regulated more tightly as a chemical group, not as and when the threat is slowly identified. We all deserve access to clean water that does not put our health at risk.

This is not radical action, as both the EU and US have taken significant strides to tackle PFAS pollution in recognition of the multitude of health concerns linked to the chemicals. The US has introduced a limit of 4 nanograms per litre for perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, while from January 2026, EU member states will have to ensure that the sum of all PFAS in drinking water does not go above a limit of 0.5 micrograms per litre.

Sadly, Brexit has meant that in the three and a half years since the UK left the EU Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals regulation—the EU system of regulating chemicals—our response to the growing threat of PFAS has moved at a snail’s pace and we have fallen behind. Other than one internationally banned substance, not a single restriction on a harmful substance has been adopted since the UK left EU REACH in 2021. That is in part due to the UK no longer having access to the world’s most comprehensive chemical registration database held by the European Chemicals Agency; we must now go through duplicate processes for regulatory decision making.

There is a clear need for European alignment, and I sincerely hope that the Government will keep their manifesto promise to see that through. It is also worth noting that Scotland adheres to EU guidelines, so it will be English and Welsh citizens who are left without the protections our neighbours enjoy, which is a bizarre misalignment. If we do not regulate PFAS as a chemical group, we risk equally toxic new pollutants replacing the ones we regulate. We risk becoming a dumping ground for products with banned PFAS. We risk becoming the dirty man of Europe.

In 2023, the Health and Safety Executive identified PFAS chemicals as a risk for consumer exposure and recommended legislation to limit the presence of these chemicals in our drinking water. Sadly, the previous Government did nothing, but my cross-party Bill provides a golden opportunity for the new Government to act to stem the untold harm being unleashed on our land, water and people, and to answer the call of the hundreds of groups and hundreds of thousands of citizens who are demanding action. Only last month, 59 of the world’s leading scientists wrote to the Government urging them to adopt a more ambitious approach to the regulation of PFAS by regulating it as a group. Surely it is time to listen.

Finally, I want to thank the organisations who have supported me with this Bill and have long championed the cause well before I became aware of it, including the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK CHEM Trust, Wildlife and Countryside Link and the Marine Conservation Society. They and many others are dedicated to ensuring that we have a country where we can safely enjoy nature and preserve people’s health for generations to come. Ultimately, this is not only about us, but about our children and our children’s children. There is no better legacy we can pass on to them than to safeguard their health as best we can. This Bill would be a significant step towards achieving that.

Question put and agreed to.

Ordered,

That Munira Wilson, Tim Farron, Alex Sobel, James MacCleary, Alberto Costa, Edward Morello, Ellie Chowns, Sarah Olney, Ruth Cadbury, David Chadwick, Cameron Thomas and Mr Joshua Reynolds present the Bill.

Munira Wilson accordingly presented the Bill.

Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 24 January 2025, and to be printed (Bill 120).