Experts say companies should be forced to give up information about which consumer products contain forever chemicals as an inquiry heard Australia is at risk of becoming the world’s dumping ground as other countries ban all goods containing the cancer-linked materials.
A Senate inquiry into per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) also heard on Wednesday that Australian regulators have so far carried out risk assessments on 423 of more than 12,000 kinds of forever chemicals.
A study has uncovered toxic PFAS chemicals in popular make-up products.Credit: Istock
The substances, prized for their stain-repelling properties but linked to a growing array of health effects, are circulating in hundreds of everyday consumer products, including food packaging, activewear and make-up.
Asked how long it would take to assess the rest of the chemicals, Australian Industrial Chemicals Introduction Scheme executive director Graeme Barden could not answer.
He was asked by chair Lidia Thorpe whether it would be possible to follow other jurisdictions such as the European Union and ban the entire family of forever chemicals, “rather than the drawn-out process of going through one by one”.
“We must do that under the current law on a chemical-by-chemical basis,” Barden said.
Senator Lidia Thorpe is chairing an inquiry into PFAS.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
A ban on three of the most notorious forever chemicals is set to come into effect in Australia next year.
Professor Denis O’Carroll from the University of NSW told the inquiry there was “reasonable concern” that if Europe banned the entire class of chemicals, manufacturers that no longer had a market overseas might use Australia as a “dumping ground”.
O’Carroll argued there needed to be more visibility over how forever chemicals were getting into people’s bodies and wastewater.
“Everybody in Australia, we flush the toilet and we put PFAS down the drain. So the question also is, where do that PFAS come from – where in our daily lives?
“We know potentially it’s in cosmetics, food packaging and a range of products. What are the easy wins to remove most of that PFAS easily? I don’t think that’s well known.”
O’Carroll said industry should be compelled to divulge more information about which of their products contained PFAS.
O’Carroll and Professor Susan Wilson from the University of New England agreed authorities should be sampling drinking water for a much wider range of forever chemicals than the three that have been the subject of recent monitoring.
Nationals senator Perin Davey quizzed experts on whether it was possible to revert to a pre-PFAS world, given the scale at which the chemicals are used since they were invented in the 1940s.
Dr Jason Kirby from the CSIRO said there were alternatives available for many PFAS compounds.
“The real challenge there is don’t put something in its place that’s worse,” he said.
It came a day after a study on freshwater turtles by the CSIRO and Queensland Department of Environment uncovered one of the highest reported concentrations of PFAS in Australian wildlife.
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