Document 8NNm5XQRRJOoqDRGxY077215

Attendance: (FOD eco), (FOD VVVL - DGAPF), (FOD WASO), (FOD VVVL - DGEM), (FOD VVVL - DGEM), (SPW), (OVAM), (OVAM), (FOD VVVL - DGEM), (FOD VVVL - DGEM), (VL), (SPW) Agenda Discussion Action Points 1. Tour de Table - exchange between the members on projects and policy actions (FOD VVVL - DGAPF) Policy initiatives: publication of COM regulation for max levels in series of food categories. Will enter into force this year. EU recommendation: mandating to collect new data for other categories and other types of PFAS other than the 4 EFSA PFAS. Financing 2 projects: - Fluorex exposure assessment project - Pfasforward at evaluation stage (not yet begun) goal to evaluate root of source of PFAS will make a template based on previous Annex XV dossiers to identify data and info needs. Other members will keep track of new data that is being generated and could be of interest for the restriction proposal. (FOD WASO) Indications that maybe other workers have high PFAS exposure. Workers of companies near 3M site have been analysed and elevated levels in the blood have been found. No overall monitoring but case by case assessment by inspection. Legislation: nothing specifically for PFAS, but legislation underway for Eds in general. (VL) Final report of the PFAS commissioner has been finalized and published. Part has been translated to English (17 pages) others might be translated in the future. Full text is available in Dutch on the PFAS website. Studies/activities are mentioned there, including the updated PFAS action plan. New group on "Zeer Zorgwekkende Stoffen" is being created, vision note on is underway, middle February management committee is planned. Agency on health care will be involved in this work. Will be advisory procedure. Not yet sure when it will be shared. Discussions with experts from the Netherlands. Frequent contacts are kept between VL and NL. Yesterday meeting in holland was held, mainly regarding nonfederal topics (water pollution etc.). Agenda point proposal for today's meeting: possible event during EU presidency. (SPW) Soil Wallonia has been conducting more and more PFAS studies on suspected contaminated sites. 15 different plants with PFAS pollution identified, mostly contaminated with foams for exercise and fire incident sites. Send to soil experts more guidelines how to investigate about human risk etc. First risk studies are starting. Depollution will be planned this year or next year. Problem they face: how to deal with others then the typical PFOS and PFOA? Reflections on this and connecting data with studies. (OVAM) Overview studies ongoing regarding ZZS in waste streams, envisaged measurement campaign to map this out (awarded to vito last year). Not just PFAS but more generally substances of concern for which standards exist are being looked at (PFAS, PCB, etc.). Total fluor for waste streams is also being investigated. Water treatment sludge, waste, ash from incinerations, dust and others. This has been granted to ECHA laboratory. Second plan focusses on ZSS in plastics and textile waste streams. No CMA methods have been developed for these yet. Additional literature study conducted by vito to gather info for waste compagnies on this. (SPW) Still have biomonitoring in progress. Samples taken and analysis on their way. Results will be there mid-2023. Another investigation on groundwater is ongoing. Minister asked to water producers directly to investigate PFAS at extraction sites. Results planned for March 2023. (FOD eco) Appointed SEAC rapporteur for the universal PFAS restriction. Expected to receive the dossier by 7 February at the latest. PFAS study will be conducted by FOD eco. To get an idea of what the market is for PFAS in BE, what is it used for etc. Then try and see whether there is a market for alternatives and how this can be promoted. Launch tender within this month, to be published in February, runs at least a month for offers to come in. Would be planned to start in March 2023. 3 months planned to deliver the report. This study will also be used to help evaluation of project financing under the Belgian Builds Back Circular (BBBC) plan. BBBC project call: Substitution of chemicals of concern. 12 million total to invest in project proposals that aim to substitute most harmful substances. At this stage preparing all the documents for starting the call. Launch is planned for the beginning of March. PFAS ED, and Apeiron selected substances will be prioritized for this call. Addition by (VL): BAT problems for PFAS have been investigated: study by vito is finalized. Has looked at water sanitation, purification, etc. for PFAS. (OVAM) OVAM Soil department: new sets of soil threshold values is being finalized. Thresholds have been approved by VL government for a first time in December. Rather trigger values instead of threshold values (they not legally binding). Triggering that risks are present and to be investigated further. Water: exchange of view on water policy with VMM and other authorities. Framework directive (WFD) is under review. Standards for PFAS for water quality are under review. Very low standard are on the table at the moment. Proposed PFAS in biota levels also are very low. Large uncertainty on how they will be enforced if the production and use of PFAS are not banned yet (input of PFAS into the environment has to stop). Values that should be checked are not under the level of detection for specialty labs like vito, but not achievable for standard testing by commercial labs. : This kind of info would be extremely helpful for opinion development of the dossier. Enforceability (test methods) is an important point. Recommend that everyone looks at the dossier, see what's in there, what is missing and how BE can contribute. Hand over any and all info that is available through the public consultation. : Dutch colleagues also had this problem with the low limit values. Also for the Walloon region as they do not have the same lab capacity as in VL and NL. (FOD VVVL - DGEM) Team of Product Policy is looking at developing a PFAS ban on packaging (not FCM). Proposal is at revision with other authorities and the EU COM until the end of this month. : study on PFAS use in household textiles by Belgium Industry. Study Commissioned to CENTEXBEL is planned to be finalized by April 2023. : several PFAS are under substance evaluation by out team. One of the evaluations has been finalized and others are awaiting study results. Further development of will greatly depend on the 3M phase out of PFAS production and the universal PFAS restriction proposal. Question by : Do others have an idea of how to determine who is responsible for PFAS contamination by firefighting foams? : a direct link between the activity and the pollution needs to be proven. However can't blame the fire fighters for using foams, they just follow safety procedures. Therefore can't say fire fighters have to pay for the contamination. VL is looking into some kind of fund from those who put the products on the market. This fund could then be used to pay for the cleanup. : also depends on the insurance etc. In general citizens should be ok for using these foams. But no clear rules on this. : update on the PFAS restrictions: - PFAS in firefighting foams restriction will have a public consultation starting in March on the SEAC draft opinion, which will run for 60 days. To be seen whether interesting to contribute to the PC. ECHA has confirmed that our previous contributions were helpful, especially info and data linking use of foams to the contamination of soil and groundwater. - General PFAS restriction: report has been submitted to ECHA and will be made publicly available on February 7th. Public Consultation will run from 23rd of March until 23rd of September. ECHA will organize a webinar April 5th to give an explanation on the proposal and how to contribute. : 7th of February a media event will be organized to introduce the restriction dossier. Not sure whether we can join. : you need a media license to join the event. : on the opinion development period: 1 year is the standard period. Extension of 3 months is possible when RAC has a very different opinion from the Annex XV submitters. However this rule is not so strictly followed and it mainly comes down to a formal question to the Commission whether extension is possible. However quite sure that the strict limit is 15 months, except if additional opinion is requested by COM. For further planning it might be good to look at making some kind of template to submit data to for the regions which can then be used as source to make a comment on the PC. 2. Belgian PFAS page on the OECD website - discussion and finalization presents the current template and asks for further input. Action points: Members can provide additional info, links or reports to add onto the webpage. will draft a final proposal which will be reviewed by the members. 3. Potential organization of a : Lot of work has been going Action Points: PFAS-event during the BE on in VL regarding PFAS. presidency of the EU (VL) Members can Would like to organize an event during the indicate to presidency to share experiences with others whether on how to tackle this pollution. Should avoid there is interest for to interfere with policy processes at that time this event and how that are linked with PFAS. COM processes, they could contribute WFD revision, restrictions, etc. should not (organization, be topics. For example measuring methods, finance, subjects, lab problems, health linked objectives, etc.) monitoring, biomonitoring others then blood testing. To be determined whether more will general public or only specialists should be send out the request the goal public. Also want to avoid via the mailing list to duplication of events already planned at that ensure that other time (for example OVAM on sanitation problems and methods). High level discussions on new REACH might be possible. members are informed on this as well. What kind of event, interest of others, in the making of, the program, presentations, all to be decide on the way forward for this. Would like to hear from the other authorities what they think. : why does VL want to do this? What is the purpose or added value of such an event? : VL has accumulated experience and would like to share this with others. Other topics can be proposed as well. : need to have a clear view of what we want to share, ask whether WL colleagues are interested, but could be a good idea. : think it's a good idea. There is some work being done by others; PFAS study, projects financed under BBBC, might be interesting to present, but still need to be launched, alternatives info might be interesting to present, BBBC project info will depend on whether that project proposals will work on PFAS. Maybe for proposals send in that are financed might be interesting to let those companies give a presentation what they have financing for during the event. Should come in by the end of June/July, so latest by end 2023 which to be financed, but can only give confirmation at the end of the year. : not super enthusiastic on the proposal as it will intervene with other EU dossiers. Without clear scope of the event, what will be the target audience and objective to focus discussion on? Also would like to know if VL want to plan this with the CCIM discussions? Not planned currently, even for non-obligatory ones it has not been discussed yet. Also there are some budget problems for the events currently planned so budget for new events will be difficult. : budget should not be a problem. Depends on the audience, kind of speakers, etc. are criteria that define the budget that you need to arrange such an event. : OVAM event planned will be the Ensor meeting planned during the BE presidency. 3. AOB and next meeting proposal Next meeting to be planned end of Action Points: February/beginning March. Doodle with date suggestions will be send. will send date suggestions for next meeting.