Air Pollution: Per- and Polyfluorinated Alkyl Substances
(asked on 19th October 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many environmental permits for municipal waste incinerators in England currently require the operator to monitor the emission of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances into the air.
Answered by
Baroness Hayman of Ullock
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
No environmental permits for municipal waste incinerators in England include a requirement to monitor PFAS emissions.
Municipal waste incinerators (MWIs) in England are not permitted to accept hazardous wastes which contain PFAS such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorohexanesulfonic Acid (PFHxS). These are the PFAS for which the strongest evidence base on environmental and human health impact concerns exists. The presence of such PFAS above the regulatory thresholds means they are classed as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and must be sent to hazardous waste incinerators (or other suitable disposal route).