The government’s position on the forever chemical TFA is too inconsistent – the pollution must be stopped immediately!

Home / / The government's position on the forever chemical TFA is too inconsistent – the pollution must be stopped immediately!

On Wednesday 16 October, the chemical TFA was discussed in the relevant commission of the Chamber of Deputies. This chemical is widespread in Luxembourg’s waters, including in drinking water. This was reason enough for the Mouvement Ecologique to call on MPs to demand a more consistent approach from the government.

 

The government responded to the Mouvement Ecologique’s questions about how it intends to take concrete action to ensure that the levels do not increase too much, on the one hand, in quite some detail. It is certainly positive that the three ministries addressed – Environment, Climate and Biodiversity; Agriculture; Health – have drafted joint responses. It is also positive that they addressed all the issues.

 

On the other hand, however, some aspects must be viewed very critically.

 

Therefore, in the letter to the MPs, the Mouvement Ecologique formulated three specific concerns. The government must:

 

  • name the main culprit: more than half of the TFA come from pesticides in agriculture. These must be reduced immediately! This has not been the case to date;
  • act in accordance with the precautionary principle and advocate far stricter limit values at EU level. Judging by the government’s letters, it does not appear to be seeking the greatest possible protection;
  • analysis results must be published quickly.

 

Further enrichment with the non-degradable chemical must now be avoided at all costs and the health of the population must be brought into focus.

 

A debate on the subject took place in the Chamber of Deputies, in which these aspects were also addressed to some extent. Unfortunately, however, no concrete conclusions were drawn. By the way: you can always watch a video of the meetings of the Chamber of Deputies‘ Environment Commission on the Chamber of Deputies’ website, even after they have taken place.

 

Read the full letter from Mouvement Ecologique dated 14 October 2024 in the downloads in German.

 

Here you will also find Mouvement Ecologique’s requests (German) to the ministries and water management authorities, as well as the official responses from the ministries (French).

 

You can find more information about the pollution of our water with TFA (trifluoroacetate) in the press releases from May and July.

 

 

16.10.24