On Tuesday evening 25 February, it was announced that a German man was tested positive for COVID-19. He would have been in the Netherlands last week.

RIVM has derived temporary background values for two types of PFAS in Dutch soil: PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOA (perfluoro octanoic acid).

In the coming weeks, RIVM will derive a temporary background value for PFAS in Dutch soil. This will be done based on measurement data from the provinces in the Netherlands.

Perfluoro (PFAS) is a group of substances that contains PFOS, PFOA and GenX. Perfluoro substances often occur as pollution in ground water and drinking water.

RIVM proposes water quality standards for perfluoro octanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA is a man-made chemical that is used to protect surfaces.

Researcher Dr Guus Velders of RIVM has made the Nature top-10 list of 2016. This means that, according to Nature, he was one of the 10 most influential scientists in 2016.

Scientific research by RIVM’s Guus Velders stood partly at the basis of the HFC global climate agreement.

Without global agreement on the use of HFCs, their contribution to the greenhouse effect may increase sharply to 10 percent of that of CO2 by 2050. The current contribution is less than 1 percent.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are potent greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners and are released primarily at the end of the life-span of these products.