The French National Agency for Food, Environmental, and Occupational Health and Safety (ANSES) has proposed an expanded monitoring scheme for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) based on a first-of-its-kind inventory of PFAS contamination and toxicity, comprising more than 247 “forever chemicals.”

Among the thousands of PFAS chemicals, few are researched and documented, and the toxicity of these “forever chemicals” are poorly understood. At present in the EU, only four PFAS are regulated and monitored in certain foods (i.e., eggs, meat products, and fishery products), and 20 PFAS will be subject to monitoring in drinking water beginning January 1, 2026 under the EU Drinking Water Directive.

To fill knowledge gaps about PFAS contamination in France, ANSES conducted a review of the available data, comprising nearly two million data points related to 142 PFAS. The data covered contamination in drinking water, the environment, food, air, dust, the human body, and consumer products.

Overall, ANSES found that the majority of data was related to PFAS in water and food, while information about PFAS in air, dust, and soil was lacking. Regarding biomonitoring data, the average levels of PFAS measured in the blood of the French population are lower than the few existing thresholds (i.e., for PFOS and PFOA), and are comparable to the levels measured in Europe.

Based on the review, and to propose an expanded national monitoring scheme for PFAS, ANSES developed a new method for categorizing different “forever chemicals.” Toxicity data were collected as part of the development of this categorization method, leading to the identification of 105 additional PFAS.

ANSES’ Strategy for Categorizing and Monitoring PFAS Across Commodities

In total, 247 PFAS (including TFA) were integrated into ANSES’ monitoring strategy.

The categorization method is based on the cross-referencing of the levels of information available on:

• The presence of the substance in different commodities
• The toxicity of the substance, including the existence of toxicological values; its classification as carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic, or an endocrine disruptor; and ecotoxicity data.

Based on its findings, ANSES proposes three surveillance strategies:

1. Long-term monitoring for the most concerning and recurring substances within the framework of national monitoring plans
2. Exploratory monitoring, carried out in a timely manner, for substances not or insufficiently researched in the present day
3. Localized monitoring for substances corresponding to proven or suspected sources of local contamination, whether the contamination is historic or current.

The proposed monitoring strategies are broken down across the following commodities: water intended for human consumption, environmental water, sediments, biota (i.e., sets of living organisms present in a specific ecosystem), food, air, indoor and outdoor dust, soil, and human biological matrices (e.g., blood, urine, breast milk, etc.).

Competent authorities and responsible stakeholders (e.g., industry players) would be responsible for adapting their monitoring strategies in light of ANSES’ recommendations.

The advantage of the method developed by ANSES is that it is scalable and can be updated regularly. The agency calls for the establishment of a national system to regularly update the proposed categorization with newly acquired data, which would be coordinated by the various stakeholders in the Inter-Ministerial Action Plan on PFAS.

Additional PFAS Contamination and Toxicity Research Needs

Alongside this proposed strategy, ANSES emphasized the importance of addressing PFAS by limiting their emission and expressed support for EU-level PFAS restrictions, which are currently under review by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

ANSES also calls for the development of a comprehensive approach to monitoring chemical contaminants, including the development of integrated risk assessment and management strategies, considering the intrinsic hazard of the compounds, their presence in commodities, and the actual exposure of populations.  

Additionally, ANSES underlined the importance of investigating specific sources of contamination—food contact materials (FCMs), materials in contact with water, construction materials, and consumer products—to better understand their release of PFAS into products and materials.

ANSES also pointed out that PFAS toxicity knowledge is limited to a group of substances, and that their toxicity mechanisms are varied. To advance the understanding of these substances, the agency calls for research aimed at identifying substances that result from the degradation of other PFAS and substances exhibiting high accumulation and/or persistence in living organisms.