Contamination of French Water Supply Networks with Vinyl Chloride Monomer

Abstract Due to the manufacturing processes employed by industries between the 1960s and 1980s, PVC pipes installed in France during this period contain residues of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), a gaseous substance recognized as carcinogenic by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. When drinking water flows through contaminated pipes, it tends to absorb VCM. To date, the concentration of VCM present in tap water exceeds in several thousand municipalities the regulatory limit (0.5 μg/L) established in 1998 within the European Union. At least several hundred thousand French citizens are presumably affected, often unknowingly, by these contaminations. Although European legislation required the French State to implement measures to prevent these exceedances, the first systematic campaign to detect VCM in drinking water began only in 2011. To date, the available data still remains very incomplete. This paper aims to examine in detail the inaction of the French State in addressing the health risks associated with VCM ingestion through drinking water. The history of VCM begins with the misleading claims of the manufacturers responsible for its production, who were aware of its toxicity as early as the 1960s. It continues with the sustained inertia of the European Union regarding drinking water quality regulation, followed by spurious statements from the French government, which consistently downplayed the health risks associated with VCM ingestion while omitting critical information in its communications to the public. The dangers posed by the ingestion of VCM through water, even at very low doses, has nevertheless been repeatedly confirmed by French health agencies. This working paper thus aims to establish the existence of a major public health scandal, drawing on the examination of numerous academic articles and public reports, providing an analysis of the evolution of European and French legislation concerning VCM, and utilizing data obtained by the author from the French Regional Health Agencies (ARS).