EU states that Bisphenol A is an endocrine disruptor

Due to a proposal from France, it has now been acknowledged and stated, that bisphenol A has endocrine disruptive properties.

Bisphenol A was earlier this year placed on the so-called candidate list of particularly hazardous substances, SVHC and was at that point only identified as toxic for reproduction. The EU Commission Member State Committee, MSC has now tightened and clarified the assessment of Bisphenol A.

At the same meeting, the Member States also agreed that perfluorhexane-1-sulfonic acid and its salts, PFHxS, should be listed on the candidate list due to the very long-lived and highly bio accumulative properties of the substance. That decision was taken due to a Swedish initiative.

The reason why Sweden pursued this issue was that a highly-fluorinated substances, so-called per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances PFAS, has been found in the groundwater in several Swedish municipalities. In the groundwater they primarily found perfluorooctanesulfonate, PFOS and perfluorohexanesulfonate, PFHxS, which has been used in older generations of fire extinguishing foams.

This has occurred mainly in areas adjacent to airports, site for fire training and safety drills and in areas after fires have been extinguished. In some cases, the levels were high and exceeded NFA action limits; this led to a necessary decommissioning of individual wells and water working plants.

From an article in ”Aktuell Hållbarhet” published 2017-06-19.