Universal PFAS restriction: consultation until 25 May
On 2 March 2026 the risk assessment committee backed a universal PFAS ban, and a sixty-day consultation opened on 26 March. The scope of PFAS testing in products, water and wastewater will widen markedly.
- The ban is to cover the whole group of these substances, not one more individual compound.
- That closes the route the market has taken so far: when one substance was banned, manufacturers moved to a close relative.
- The consultation on the socio-economic analysis committee’s draft opinion opened on 26 March 2026 and runs for sixty days.
- Decisions on derogations are made at this stage — and both committees propose removing most of them.
- For laboratories this means a steady stream of low-level determinations: products, materials, coatings, supplier documentation.
- Check the cleanliness of the analytical path, as fluorinated parts in the equipment can inflate a result.
Source: ECHA