France's drinking water contains prohibited pesticide: Report

ANKARA

France's drinking water is contaminated by a prohibited pesticide, according to an official report.

The French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) in a report on Thursday said that its laboratories have sought in the water the chemical components, which are not at all or little sought during regular checks.

France's drinking water widely contains chlorothalonil R471811, and this component exceeds the quality limits in more than one out of three samples, ANSES said, and it is a "relevant metabolite."

The EU regulation 2020/2184 indicates that this kind of metabolite is considered relevant if "it has intrinsic properties comparable to the parent substance in terms of its biological target activity…"

ANSES added that chlorothalonil was admitted as relevant metabolite following Swiss data in 2019, which showed that it was found heavily in Switzerland's drinking water.

This metabolite comes from a fungicide that was banned in France in 2020, the agency said.

"The results showed that depending on their character, some metabolites of pesticides can remain in the environment several years after the prohibition of the active substance they come from," the ANSES added.

ANSES is a public administrative body reporting to the Ministries of Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor and Consumer Affairs.