The Belgian village of Villers-le-Gambon announced on February 13 that it was temporarily closing a spring that provides mineral water due to a high level of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a degradation product of certain f-gases (notabuly HFO-1234yf), pesticides and other chemicals.
This is one of the first times that a governmental authority has shut down a water supply due to the presence of TFA, which has been proliferating globally in surface and drinking water, soil, crops, beverages and human blood.
TFA is an ultrashort-chain (two-carbon) example of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a category of persistent chemical pollutants, according to the scientifically accepted definition of PFAS. Their moniker, “forever chemicals,” comes from their invulnerability in nature.
“In accordance with the application of the precautionary principle, we have taken the decision to temporarily close the spring of Villers-le-Gambon (Fontaine de Moisny),” the village said in a statement. During the closure the village plans to “carry out additional analyses to identify the origin and impact of the TFA” and “assess the measures to be put in place to ensure water quality.”
The village stressed that drinking water distributed by the public network of Villers-le-Gambon “does not exceed the threshold [for TFA] and can be consumed safely.”
Villers-le-Gambon is part of the municipality of Philippeville in the Wallonia (French-speaking) part of Belgium.
An analysis of mineral water from groundwater and deep aquifers in Europe revealed that Villers-le-Gambon had the highest TFA concentration, 3.4mcg/L (3,400ng/L), which exceeded a limit (2.2mcg/L) set by a local authority, the Belgian Independent Scientific Committee (ISC). The analysis was done by the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) Europe, which has also found TFA in surface water and in drinking water throughout Europe.
PAN Europe targeted for analysis mineral water at 19 locations in Europe. TFA measurements were taken during the summer and the fall of 2024, with the latter results confirming the former in all cases. The samples encompassed two mineral water brands from France, four from Belgium, one from the Netherlands, one from Luxembourg, one from Hungary and the five best-selling mineral water brands from Austria. The Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) also provided PAN Europe with the analysis results of five mineral and spring waters from Germany.
Nine of the locations (including two that provide spring water) did not contain quantifiable TFA residues, but the others showed TFA levels ranging from 52ng/L to 470ng/L, except for Villers-le-Gambon, which had by far the highest levels at 3,400ng/L in the fall reading and 3,200 in the summer. In its latest publication PAN Europe identified most of the mineral water companies associated with each measurement, which was not done in the original publication.
Message from the bottler
The upper limit for total PFAS, including TFA, of 0.5mcg/l (500ng/l) proposed in the EU Drinking Water is due to come into force in 2026, although it will not be implemented by all Member States. But PAN Europe stated that, each of the mineral waters tested – including the one at Villers-le-Gambon with the highest measured contamination of 3,200/3,400ng/L – “complies with most of the current human health guideline values set by various authorities in the EU, even with a high daily consumption of 2L [0.5gal] calculated for a 60kg [132lbs] adult.”
Village authorities met with Villers Monopole, the local bottler of mineral water in Villers-le-Gambon, on February 17, and released a message from the company reassuring residents that its mineral water is “fit for human consumption.” (There is no TFA standard for bottled water in Belgium, according to the French-speaking public broadcaster rtbf ACTUS.)
The company said it supports measures to establish a standardized methodology to measure the presence of TFA, and participates in the analyses and scientific work carried out by the trade group Natural Mineral Waters Europe “to share and deepen knowledge on this emerging topic.”
In addition, Villers Monopole said it “supports the request of the European bottled water industry for the reduction and gradual elimination of TFA-based products and applications, to protect and preserve the quality of water resources.”
Another study of TFA in Belgian drinking water found it the Dutch-speaking northern Belgium region of Flanders, according to a report in the Flemish news outlet vrt nws last November. De Watergroep, the largest drinking water company in Flanders, recorded in TFA levels of 8.3mcg/L in Zillebeke and more than 7mcg/L in Dikkebus, De Blankaart, and Roksem, as well as in lower concentrations elsewhere. Those levels were below the recently established health advisory value of 15.6mcg/L for drinking water. An earlier study revealed TFA in the drinking water in Belgium’s capital city of Brussels.
De Watergroep assured its customers that “we continue to strictly monitor the amount of TFA in drinking water and ensure that it remains below the maximum standard at all times.” The company offers customers the opportunity to view the origin and composition of their drinking water, with TFA expected to be added to the analysis in the spring of 2025.
Toxicity debate
In justifying the proliferation of TFA in the environment, the chemical industry points to a United Nation Environment Programme (UNEP) report published in 2023 by its Environmental Effects Assessment Panel (EEAP). The report, “Environmental Effects of Stratospheric Ozone Depletion, UV Radiation, and Interactions with Climate Change: 2022 Assessment Report,” states that TFA “does not bioaccumulate” and is therefore “unlikely to cause adverse effects in terrestrial and aquatic organisms.” The report does recommend continued monitoring and assessment “due to uncertainties in the deposition of TFA and its potential effects on marine organisms.”
Some researchers believe that TFA, as it continues to accumulate in water supplies and food, could pose a threat to human health over time. That is particularly because TFA has been found in human blood, usually at levels higher than that of longer-chain PFAS. In a 2024 study that reviewed research done between 1990 and 2024 on TFA and other ultrashort-chain PFAS, 17 detections of TFA in blood were cited, with a median concentration of 9ng/mL.
Similarly structured, longer-chain PFAS, like eight-carbon PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), are bioaccumulative in organs like the liver and cancer-causing. TFA may be less bioaccumulative than PFOA but its presence in the blood over a long period of time still raises red flags, noted Shira Joudan, Assistant Professor of Analytical Environmental Chemistry at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. “We know that [TFA is] not going to be an acute, short term exposure. It’s going to be one of these long term exposures at the lower concentrations that need to be studied in toxicity studies.”
Already, Germany’s environmental authorities have suggested toxic effects from TFA. For example, the German Federal Office for Chemicals (Bundesstelle für Chemikalien or BfC) last year submitted to the European Chemical Agency (ECHA), a proposal linking reproductive toxicity to TFA and its inorganic salts. Based on TFA studies showing liver dysfunction in rats, the German Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt or UBA) has set a human health-based guideline value of 60mcg/L for TFA in drinking water and a “precautionary measure” of 10mcg/L. The Netherlands and Denmark also have precautionary thresholds for TFA in drinking water – 2.2mcg/L and 9mcg/L, respectively.
In addition, a recent European study makes the case that TFA meets the criteria of a “planetary boundary threat” because of increasing planetary-scale exposure, where “potential irreversible disruptive impacts on vital earth system processes could occur.”
Meanwhile, PAN Europe calls for a ban on PFAS pesticides, f-gases and other precursor substances that create TFA in the environment. Among f-gases, fugitive emissions of HFO-1234yf convert 100% in the atmosphere over a few weeks to TFA, which is absorbed by tainfall.
To that end, the NGO believes “it is essential to break the silence surrounding TFA and make all information – even if it includes uncomfortable truths – publicly accessible,” adding, “Collecting facts, critically evaluating them according to scientific principles, and transparently informing the public are the most significant contributions we, as independent environmental organizations, can make to addressing and reducing global TFA contamination.”
“In accordance with the application of the precautionary principle, we have taken the decision to temporarily close the spring of Villers-le-Gambon.”
Announcement by Villers-le-Gambon, Belgium
