Regarding the seriousness of the situation of contamination of water resources by pesticide metabolites resulting from all present and past uses and in particular the requirement for protection against risks to human health with regard to chronic exposure to pesticides and their metabolites as well as other organic micropollutants in mixtures, the High Council for Public Health (HCSP) does not consider any additional possibility of derogation from the existing regulatory values concerning the presence of pesticides and their metabolites in drinking-water. These are the quality limits provided for in application of the provisions of the Public Health Code and the provisional management aid values (Vmax and Provisional Health Values) within the derogatory framework provided for by the regulations. This is also the guideline value of 0.9 µg/L for each non relevant pesticide metabolite.

The HCSP recalls that it has published, since 2019, three other opinions on this subject and:

• That it is important to implement management actions aimed at reducing the concentration of contaminants in water intended for human consumption to a level compliant with regulations (dilutions, change of resources, interconnections of pipe networks, depollution technologies, etc.).
• That it is fundamental not to limit management actions to curative aspects and that it is essential to improve the preservation and protection of resources and catchment areas, in particular by reducing the use of pesticides.
• That the point-of-use treatment devices currently offered on the market do not offer any guarantee of reliability and safety and that they would correspond to a transfer of responsibility to the user which cannot be envisaged.

With regard to the concentrations of pesticide metabolites in water, the HCSP recommends to:

• Define, at a national level, monitoring on a common minimum list of molecules analyzed.
• Facilitate access to water health control data for users.
• Provide Health Regional Agencies with the necessary means for managing health control data.

For financial, ethical, equity and environmental justice reasons, the HCSP indicates that the costs generated by water treatment cannot, and must not, rest only on users, more particularly for small municipalities.