Banning Pesticides with PFAS Active Ingredients

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency has decided to recall 23 pesticides containing PFAS active ingredients.

The decision was made following an assessment of new information from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), which shows that the substances break down into the health-hazardous trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). TFA leaches into groundwater in concentrations above the EU’s limit value, posing a risk to both the environment and public health.

“We must protect our precious drinking water, and we have a duty to intervene when we see that the use of certain pesticides poses a risk to nature and human health. Therefore, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency is now prohibiting 23 pesticides with proven problematic PFAS active substances,” said Minister of the Environment, Magnus Heunicke, in connection with the decision.

The ban applies to pesticides containing five of the seven PFAS active substances examined in the current report by GEUS. A sixth substance, flonicamid, is also under consideration based on information from an ongoing reassessment in the EU. These pesticides are estimated to have accounted for about 28% of the total pesticide burden in Denmark in 2023.

The Danish Environmental Protection Agency is still assessing an additional 10 pesticides that have also shown leaching of TFA. Decisions on these are expected by the end of September, which could bring the total number of banned pesticides to 33.

TFA is a PFAS compound that, according to German authorities, is harmful to fetuses and reproductive ability. Moreover, the substance is very persistent and can accumulate in the environment over time.

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