20 years ago, it all began with a pencil…
April 17, 202520 years ago, it all began with a pencil…
April 17, 2025PFAS: Tackling a major environmental and health challenge
Unless you’ve been living on a desert island with no access to the news, you’ve likely heard a lot of talk recently about emerging contaminants known as PFAS, which have been widely publicized due to their accumulation in our living environments – namely the contamination of municipal wells in Québec, and their growing prevalence in the food chain1.
But what exactly are PFAS, and why is it imperative for humankind to move quickly to eliminate them?
The acronym “PFAS” stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a family of synthetic chemical compounds. The acronym covers thousands of substances that are found in a wide range of consumer goods and industrial applications.
Since the 1940s–1950s, PFAS have unfortunately enjoyed great popularity for their chemical properties: resistance to heat, water, and grease, and low surface tension. They are used as surfactants, lubricants or repellents in products such as waterproof clothing, non-stick coatings, carpets, food packaging, personal care products, extinguishing foams and military equipment. They are also used in various industrial processes, including metallurgy, in electronic batteries, paints, and in many other sectors. In short, PFAS are omnipresent in our daily lives.
This means that in everyday actions, whether you are buying a hamburger from a fast-food restaurant chain or cooking at home with a non-stick frying pan, there’s a risk of exposure to these substances.
The major problem with PFAS is their permanence. They are so-called “persistent” chemical compounds that do not break down in the human body or in the environment. This characteristic raises serious concerns about their effects on health and ecosystems. Although research is still in its early stages, available studies already indicate that exposure to PFAS can affect several human systems and organs, including the liver, kidneys, the immune system, reproduction, and fetal development.
On an environmental level, their very low biodegradability leads to long-lasting accumulation in soils, sediments, water, and even the air. Their potential for bioaccumulation in plant, animal and ultimately human food chains could have major consequences, comparable to a veritable time bomb. Their concentration in human tissues and organs could become particularly worrying.
In March 2025, the government of Canada published a detailed report on the PFAS situation in the country2. Globally, legislators are beginning to ban certain PFAS gradually from industrial production, or to regulate their concentration in drinking water.
In Canada, a first concrete step has recently been taken: the government strongly encouraged fire departments to stop using extinguishing foams containing PFAS and to switch to PFAS-free alteratives3. This change represents an important step in the right direction.
An interactive map of Canada listing PFAS-contaminated locations was recently published in the media4.
In the short to medium term, banning PFAS in everyday consumer products is the key to rapidly reducing their presence in the environment, while simultaneously investing in the development of technologies that enable their complete destruction.
Currently, the most widespread technologies for removing PFAS from drinking water are filtration through activated carbon and membrane filtration. However, these methods do not destroy PFAS. They simply capture them so that the treated water is free of them. The generated waste – saturated carbons, used resins or concentrates – must then be managed as hazardous waste, and cannot simply be put into a landfill.
PFAS, therefore, are a complex problem that will continue to challenge mankind for many years to come and will undoubtedly increase water treatment costs 5. However, we should remain optimistic about the human capacity to innovate in the face of this challenge.
Let’s not forget that it only took two years from the 1985 publication in Nature of the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer by British researchers to the adoption of the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which prohibits CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) – substances that were then widely used in aerosols and the refrigeration industry and were responsible for ozone depletion.
References:
4 https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/features/2025/pfas-canada-map/
