An extremely persistent and highly mobile “forever chemical” byproduct is contaminating many mineral water brands sold across Europe, researchers have found.
Evaluating the contents of 19 brands of mineral water, a recent analysis from the Pesticide Action Network Europe identified a compound called trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in 10 of the water brands.
TFA is not officially defined as a “forever chemical” in the United States or Europe, but many scientists do classify the compound as such. The European Food Safety Authority notes that TFA “forms during the breakdown of PFAS” — the acronym for the thousands of types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances commonly known as forever chemicals.
Known for their inability to degrade in nature, PFAS are found in variety of household products, industrial waste, pesticides and certain firefighting foams. Many types of PFAS have also been linked to serious illnesses, such as thyroid disease, testicular cancer and kidney cancer.
While scientists have found indications that TFA is toxic to mammalian reproduction and may be toxic to the liver, the health impacts to humans have yet to be determined.
Regardless of the small and transportable substance’s official PFAS status, the compound’s concentration has been surging in rains, soil, human blood, plant-based foods and water, according to a recent study in Environmental Science & Technology.
Researchers say this rampant accumulation may be occurring because many types of PFAS unleash TFA as a product of their degradation. Some such PFAS-containing sources include fluorinated gases, pesticides, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals.
Mineral water, on the other hand, is supposed to “originate from underground sources of water, which are assumed to be protected from all risks of pollution,” the Pesticide Action Network Europe stated.
“This purity is not only a key quality feature but also a legal requirement,” the scientists added.
Within the EU, that legal requirement distinguishes natural mineral waters from other types of drinking water “by their purity at source and their constant level of minerals.”
Mineral water in Europe “may not be the subject of any treatment,” aside for specific types of treatment at-source that aim to eliminate specific unstable or undesirable components,
U.S. mineral water, meanwhile, must come “from a source tapped at one or more bore holes or springs, originating from a geologically and physically protected underground water source,” according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Like the Europe directives, the FDA regulations dictate that “no minerals may be added to this water.”
In the Pesticide Action Network Europe analysis, researchers found that in 7 of the 19 mineral water brands, TFA contamination surpassed the EU’s drinking water limits for pesticides.
And in one case, they observed that the amount of TFA exceeded the upper limit for total PFAS proposed in an updated EU drinking water directive that is set to come into force in 2026.
“We recognize that mineral water companies affected by TFA contamination may have no or limited ability to prevent TFA contamination of their water sources,” the organization stated, while stressing that consumers still deserve to know what is in their water.
Pesticide Action Network Europe is calling for “urgent bans” on PFAS-laden pesticides, fluorinated gases and other substances that serve as TFA precursors.
The European Commission is currently considering proposed bans on two types of PFAS-laden pesticides, flufenacet and flutolanil, both of which cause copious amounts of TFA contamination in European groundwater and drinking water, the group added.
