European Union

Universal Restriction of PFAS – The European Chemicals Agency’s (ECHA) Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) is scheduled to meet from March 3-7, 2025, for its 72nd session. During this meeting, the Committee will discuss the proposed restriction on PFAS, focusing on their use in fluorinated gases, transport, and energy sectors. The discussions will address the current status of the proposal, next steps, and the general approach for evaluating the restriction.

In the main two strategic documents released earlier this month. A Competitiveness Compass for the EU and the Clean Industrial Deal (CID), no express reference is made to the universal PFAS restriction proposal. However, both strategies mention the adoption of a Chemicals Industry Package in late 2025 without releasing more specific details.

EU Member States

France

• National law proposing PFAS ban approved – On February 20, the French National Assembly passed the country’s first law regulating PFAS. The bill was approved in its Senate version and is now considered definitively adopted.

  Effective January 1, 2026, the law bans the manufacture, import, export, and marketing of products containing PFAS in items such as clothing, footwear, cosmetics, and ski wax. The ban will be extended to all textile products by 2030, unless deemed “necessary for essential uses.” The law also includes a “polluter pays” provision, requiring companies to pay €100 for every 100 grams of PFAS released into the environment. Cookware, initially included in the scope of the ban, was ultimately excluded.

  With this adoption, France joins Denmark in taking action on PFAS ahead of the proposed EU-wide restriction.

• Measurement of PFAS in the air – On February 5, a regional environmental monitoring association revealed the first-ever measurements of PFAS in the air in France, detecting concentrations of 22-38 PFAS substances in urban areas. The findings show that PFAS levels range from a few picograms per cubic meter in Lyon to higher concentrations near factories in Pierre-Bénite. Despite the presence of substances such as PFOA and PFOS, the study suggests that these airborne pollutants are not linked to previously stored soil contamination.

Other Developments

• PFAS pesticide fluopyram – 29 NGOs have called for a ban on the PFAS pesticide fluopyram, which degrades into the toxic compound TFA, harmful to aquatic environments, particularly groundwater. The European Commission has recently extended fluopyram’s approval until June 2026.

Peter Sellar contributed to this article