EU plan to ban up to 7,000 dangerous chemicals failing badly, says study

The Van Etten Creek dam in Oscoda Township, Michigan. PFAS were used so ubiquitously over the last century that one US government study found them in the bloodstreams of almost all Americans. Photograph: Jake May/AP

A plan to ban up to 7,000 of the most potentially dangerous chemicals on the European market by 2030 is failing badly, according to a study.

A year ago, the EU launched a roadmap to banning groups of toxic substances linked to environmental damage and serious illnesses such as cancers, hormonal disruption and reprotoxic disorders. These included all bisphenols, the most dangerous flame retardants, and the increasingly controversial PFAS chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).