PFAS pesticides in groundwater - chambers of agriculture counter

"The fact that PFAS pesticides are the largest source of TFA in agricultural areas is a fact that cannot be denied," emphasizes Helmut Burtscher-Schaden, environmental chemist at GLOBAL 2000. "This is a scientific consensus and can be demonstrated using a simple mass balance."

The TFA mass balance for Austria

On the basis of precipitation of 941 mm (= 9,410,000 liters per hectare) and an average TFA load of rainwater of 335 nanograms per liter (ng/l), around 8 tons of TFA reached Austria's agricultural land (2.5 million hectares) with the rain in 2022. For comparison: In the same year, according to the active ingredient sales figures of the Federal Office for Food Safety, which GLOBAL 2000 received in response to a request under the Environmental Information Act, 116 tons of pesticides containing PFAS were sold in Austria. Due to their chemical composition, these have a TFA release potential of 41 tons - i.e. around five times the amount released by rain.

Burtscher-Schaden: "The German Federal Environment Agency also comes to similar similar results. In Germany, the TFA release potential of pesticides is four and a half times higher than that of precipitation. The contribution of liquid manure and sewage treatment plants is around three percent each.

Massive differences between regions - clear link to agriculture

This mass balance is consistent with official investigation results commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, which indicate a clear influence of agriculture: In Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg, Carinthia and Vienna, the average TFA load in the years 2018 to 2019 was 395 ng/l - only slightly above the background load of precipitation. In contrast, the average TFA load in the agriculturally strong federal states of Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Burgenland and Styria was 1,100 ng/l. This difference was even more striking in the TFA contamination of drinking water samples that GLOBAL 2000 analyzed in the previous year. examined(363 ng/l versus 1,730 ng/l).