PFAS in agricultural applications: Towards ‘Safe and Sustainable by Design’

PFAS chemicals are found everywhere in the living environment: in soil, water, air, plants and animals. Human exposure to PFAS through food and drinking water in the Netherlands now exceeds the safe limit set by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in 2022.

In this Science shop project we focus on agricultural PFAS uses and alternatives, specifically those in Plant Protection Products (PPPs). We aim to design scenarios to ensure the environment can become a more important factor in deciding if a chemical is allowed to be used in agricultural applications.

With students from varying study programmes we examine the most important PFAS uses in PPPs of crops like potatoes and strawberries, as well as their alternatives.

Home Earth Foundation (Stichting Huize Aarde) approached WUR to understand what is needed to prevent a repeat of the current PFAS case in the future. Therefore we also look at EU and national-level policy developments. We explore the potential of the emerging ‘essential use’ concept for governing PPPs. This will lead to co-developing scenarios for enforcing a ‘Safe and Sustainable by Design’ principle for pesticides.

Project execution
> Dr. Freddy van Hulst (WU Environmental Policy Group - SSG)
> Dr. Rian Ruhl (WR Wageningen Food & Biobased Research)
> Dr. Astrid Hendriksen (WU Environmental Policy Group - SSG)

Students WUR ACT Group
> Oskar Kaźmierczak
> Bonnie Roefs
> Filippo Lugari
> Anastasia Magklara
> Ava Evans
> Matthijs Welling
> Anniek Snijders
> Jori Huang
> Cathy van den Heuvel
> Elvin Lodder
> Penny Tsapikouni
> Jesús Mariscal Gallardo
> Thijmen Calis

Project Advisors
> Sandra Reynaers (Dutch Union of Waterboards)
> Esmée de Graaf (WR Crop Health)
> Jacco van Haveren (WR Safe and circular biobased products)
> Henk Jans (environmental-medical doctor)
> Jelmer Buijs (Independent PPP researcher, Buijs agroservices)
> Lèneke Pfeiffer (WUR Science Shop coordinator)
> Alanya den Boer (WUR Science Shop coordinator)