European environment ministers underwent blood testing for “forever chemicals” Thursday in a publicity exercise to highlight the alarming reach of the toxic substances.
“I’m hoping to bring awareness to this problem,” Danish Minister for the Environment Magnus Heunicke told POLITICO. “This is causing really serious problems to our health and to our environment. We need to actually ban PFAS in our everyday products throughout the EU.”
Denmark orchestrated the group test during a meeting of EU environment ministers in the northern Danish city of Aalborg. The country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
PFAS substances — commonly known as forever chemicals — don’t break down naturally and have been shown to accumulate in the environment and cause a host of health conditions, including cancer, liver damage and decreased fertility. Most people in the world have some level of PFAS in their blood.
