What has been called "acceptable standards" for decades is now a threat to human health.
In the water we drink.
In the bread we eat every day.
🔬 New European research documents high concentrations of "everlasting chemicals" - pesticide breakdown products - in drinking water and food.
📉 And the study that had been used to support the safety of glyphosate for 25 years has been officially withdrawn as unreliable.
Below is a detailed overview of the research, facts and decisions that are already having an impact on human health, agricultural policy and the future of food.
⬇️ Read carefully. This applies to everyone.
REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND INTERNATIONAL POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT ON HUMAN LIFE
10 December 2025
- Persistent chemicals as pesticide breakdown products are present in food and drinking water in high concentrations
📍The French National Agency for Food, Environment and Labour Safety has conducted a large-scale study of 600 samples of tap water and fresh water in nature, which lasted from September 2023 to September 2025 and covered all regions of the country. 92% of the samples contained traces of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), which belongs to a broad class of per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFAS) - so-called "everlasting chemicals" because they do not decompose for thousands of years and yet easily penetrate the body of soil, plants, animals and humans.
TFA has been proven to be toxic: it has a negative effect on the reproductive, immune and endocrine systems, liver and thyroid gland. Concentrations in doses ranging from 1000 to 25000 nanograms per litre have been detected. Different countries have different standards for the permissible content of this chemical: from 2200 ng/l in the Netherlands to 10000 ng/l in France and 60000 ng/l in Germany. In addition, in France, the legislation also considers TFA to be a breakdown product of a pesticide line, in which case the permissible content is reduced to 100 ng/l. This means that in the samples collected, the standard was exceeded by an average of 100 times.
In addition, other types of "perpetual chemicals" were found in high concentrations in the water samples, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) and trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFMSA), all of which are harmful to health and the environment.
📜The European Food Safety Authority was supposed to make a decision on the unified permissible content of TFA in water and food regardless of its source by the end of 2025, but postponed the final decision until July 2026, probably under pressure from industry lobbyists. Meanwhile, the French government has decided to introduce a one-and-a-half-year transition period for modifying production processes in order to revise the requirements for producers of "perpetual chemicals", including pesticide manufacturers, depending on the European Agency's decision. In the meantime, while the review is underway, the French can continue to use these chemicals for at least another year and a half to the best of their health and without any warnings.
✋🏻Тим recently, the Pesticide Action Network Europe published a study on the TFA content of 66 food cereal products in 16 European countries. The products chosen were mainly wheat flour-based, as this is the cereal crop that is most often treated with pesticides. This is the first study of its kind in Europe, as national authorities have never before determined the content of "eternal chemicals" in food, but only in drinking water.
TFA was detected in 81.8% of the samples. The concentration of this chemical was 107 times higher than its average concentration in drinking water and ranged from 78.9 to 360 µg/kg. While there is no EU standard for TFA in food, a general permissible limit for different types of chemicals of no more than 10 µg/kg applies.
Here is a list of some of the products studied with the TFA content:
- Oat flakes, Ireland - 360 µg/kg
- Wholemeal bread, Belgium - 340 µg/kg
- Wheat flour, Germany - 310 µg/kg
- Baguette, France - 210 µg/kg
- Rye bread, Switzerland - 200 µg/kg
- Croissant, France - 180 mcg/kg
- Ginger biscuits, the Netherlands - 130 µg/kg
- Toast bread, Spain - 120 µg/kg
- Flour, Luxembourg - 120 µg/kg
- Breadcrumbs, Austria - 74 µg/kg
- Toast bread from sprouted wheat, Poland - 62 µg/kg
- Biscuit cakes, Bulgaria - 49 µg/kg
- Corn flour, Romania - 49 µg/kg
- Poppy seed bun, Czech Republic - 42 µg/kg
- Oat flakes from unhulled grain, Hungary - 31 µg/kg
- Spaghetti, Italy - 26 µg/kg
- Yeast bread with olive oil, Greece - 17 µg/kg
The authors of the study call for a ban at the EU level and in member states on pesticides whose formulation contains trifluoroacetic acid and other "eternal chemicals" in their original form or as primary breakdown products.
In Ukraine, it is advisable not to wait for orders from Brussels, but to proactively introduce stricter measures to protect public health from toxic chemicals in water and food.
- The landmark study on the safety of glyphosate turned out to be a fake.
Back in 2000, the scientific journal Elsevier Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology published a study entitled "Assessment of the safety and risk to humans of the herbicide Roundup and its main active ingredient Glyphosate".
Its authors were Harry Williams (USA), Robert Cruz (Netherlands) and Ian Munro (Canada). The very fact that a scientific publication appeared in a respectable professional journal suggests that reviewers should have carefully checked the validity of the researchers' methods and conclusions. It should be recalled that the main conclusion of the study was that glyphosate is not a carcinogen, is not toxic, does not have a harmful effect on reproductive function and the endocrine system, and therefore, Roundup herbicide does not pose a risk to human health.
Many subsequent scientific studies on the subject have usually referred to this 25-year-old study as the most authoritative, and therefore national governments regularly renew the authorisations for the use of glyphosate-based herbicide products.
Suddenly, in December 2025, the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology made an official announcement that it was withdrawing the publication of the study. The withdrawal was made at the request of the journal's co-editor-in-chief, Professor Martin van den Berg, who cited the following reasons for this decision: doubts about the true authorship of the study; low reliability of the findings due to misrepresentation of facts, undisclosed sponsorship and conflict of interest; lack of response after a request to the only living author, Harry Williams.
In particular, the study's assessment of the carcinogenicity and genotoxicity of glyphosate was based solely on classified studies by the manufacturer Monsanto, despite the fact that at that time there were already dozens of other independent studies proving the harm of this substance.
📢 As part of a judicial investigation on behalf of the US government against Monsanto (for other reasons), internal company correspondence was made public, which made it clear that employees of the company itself were actively involved in writing the study on the safety of glyphosate, or they were probably the main authors, and the three gentlemen mentioned above were used as a cover. Since the fact of collaboration is not mentioned in the study, it is obvious that there is a conflict of interest that undermines academic impartiality and reputation.
The company's internal correspondence also revealed the fact that the company paid three fictitious authors, which was also not disclosed at the time of publication.
The initiator of the retraction emphasises that this work from 2000 had a huge impact on the scientific community and subsequent government decisions, which had far-reaching negative consequences. In view of all the above, the editorial board of the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology concluded that in order to maintain its high reputation in the scientific world, it could not sign on to this allegedly fraudulent study.
⛳️В In Ukraine, Roundup and other glyphosate-containing herbicides are massively used not only on farmers' fields but also in private households, not to mention the total chemicalisation of our entire environment. Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Health complains that we have such high levels of chronic physiological and mental illnesses, including cancer. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment has also been shrugging its shoulders for years, because if all this poison is banned, GDP will fall. And everyone is deeply looking for the reasons for these incomprehensible negative trends.
Sources:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273230025002387
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