EU Commission sticks with PFAS in wind turbines for now

Maurice Forgeng, Epoch Times

In brief:

• The FPÖ politician Gerald Hauser asked the EU Commission about the effects of PFAS from wind turbines.
• Hauser: more than 200 chemicals, some of them toxic, enter the environment through wind turbines.
• In its answer, the Commission refers to an existing proposal to restrict all PFAS.

In July this year, the Austrian MEP Gerald Hauser of the FPÖ submitted a parliamentary question to the EU Commission. It concerns the possible harmful effects of PFAS from wind turbines on the environment and health.

The politician wrote (German):

“These ‘forever chemicals’ are highly toxic to humans and the environment. Among other things, they affect the hormone balance, damage the immune system, impair fertility and can cause cancer.”

PFAS stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. According to the German Federal Environment Ministry (German), this group comprises more than 10,000 different substances. These artificially produced substances are extremely stable and long-lived.

“However, in recent years harmful effects on health have been demonstrated for certain PFAS […],” the ministry says. This is “particularly worrying in combination with their persistence”.

Exposure to more than 200 chemicals

The FPÖ politician said that PFAS are found, among other places, in the coatings of rotor blades. These are subject to regular abrasion when the turbines operate. PFAS are also used in gearboxes, storage systems, lubricants, hydraulic fluids and cable insulation.

“As a result, more than 200 chemicals, including PFAS, get from wind turbines into the air, soil, gardens, surface waters and groundwater,” Hauser warned. He wrote that Denmark and Sweden had already recognised the risk and introduced considerably stricter limits (German) for certain PFAS than the European Union.

The limits in these two countries are only one twenty-fifth and one fiftieth of the EU values respectively. The EU Commission did not comment on this specific comparison in its answer.

Finally, Hauser put three questions to the EU Commission:

• What does the Commission intend to do to ban PFAS once and for all?
• What does the Commission intend to do to stop the ongoing exposure of people, animals and the environment to PFAS from wind turbines?
• What is the Commission’s position on the numerous statements by environmental experts and doctors that the current EU limits for PFAS are far too high?

Commission: PFAS still permitted for now

On 4 September, the answer finally came from Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné on behalf of the Commission. He first referred to a proposal to restrict all PFAS submitted by five national authorities.

The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is currently examining this proposal. According to Séjourné, the examination covers the energy sector, but not an individual technology such as wind turbines.

“As long as ECHA’s final scientific assessment is still pending, the Commission cannot assess how the use of PFAS in wind turbines will be dealt with,” the Commissioner continued. According to Séjourné, a rapid change in the handling of PFAS is not in sight. He went on:

“Where no alternatives equivalent in terms of performance and safety are available, the continued use of PFAS […] may be permitted until acceptable substitutes are found.”

Wind industry contradicts Hauser’s account

PFAS are used in wind turbines precisely because of their durability. According to the industry company JUWI (German), these substances are meant to make the rotor blade coatings more stable. This in turn is intended to reduce abrasion.

In addition, wind turbines account for only a small share of total PFAS emissions. Based on the restriction proposal, JUWI cites 55 tonnes of PFAS emissions per year from the entire energy sector. That is little compared with the emissions of all sectors, which according to the proposal add up to around 70,000 tonnes per year in the EU.

The bulk of these emissions, 38,806 tonnes, is accounted for by so-called F-gases (German), or fluorinated greenhouse gases. Among other things, they are used as refrigerants in refrigeration and air-conditioning systems and as blowing agents in foams and insulation materials.

Federal institute: “a forever challenge”

Hauser called (German) the EU Commission’s answer a “political declaration of bankruptcy”. On Monday, 14 September, he addressed the Commission’s statement that it wanted to limit the release of pollutants into the environment and promote innovation with clear incentives to find alternatives to PFAS.

Hauser said: “That is absurd, since the EU has at the same time been pushing the expansion of wind power for years.” The FPÖ politician therefore announced that he would continue to press the Commission.

Only in June this year, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (German) also addressed the dangers of PFAS, describing the forever chemicals as “a forever challenge”.

According to the institute, people take in PFAS to a significant extent via animal-based foods such as fish, meat, milk and eggs. Because certain PFAS remain in the body for a long time, “concentrations can arise that have undesirable effects on humans”, the institute says.

In summer 2024, experts in Rhineland-Palatinate warned (German) against eating wild boar liver. The animals’ offal was heavily contaminated with PFAS.

According to the institute, some health effects are already known. “These include an increase in blood lipid levels (a risk factor for cardiovascular disease), an increase in a liver enzyme in blood serum (an indication of impaired liver function) and reduced birth weight,” it says.

This article first appeared in German in Epoch Times – with kind permission of Maurice Forgeng. Translated from German by GAIA.
Cover image: distelAPPArath / Pixabay