“Thousands of people drink water that causes cancer”: many French departments affected by water contaminated with CVM

According to a study published on January 16 by Gaspard Lemaire, a doctoral student in political science, many water networks are contaminated with vinyl chloride monomer, a gas resulting from the degradation of PVC classified as carcinogenic. Neighborhood associations have come together in the face of the silence of the authorities.

This is a discovery that could be a lifesaver for thousands of people. No fewer than 600,000 people are exposed to vinyl chloride monomer [VCM] by drinking their tap water in France, according to 20 minutes.

VCM has been a carcinogenic gas by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) since 1987. It is produced by the degradation of PVC pipes. The latter were banned in 1978, but the pipes had already been installed and therefore remained in place.

Years later, in 2011, the first campaign to monitor this gas began in France. The regions affected by this serious problem are: Aquitaine, Normandy, Pays-de-la-Loire, with missing data in Occitanie and Île-de-France, according to Gaspard Lemaire, a doctoral student in political science at the Eart Chair at the University of Angers.

The professor points out in particular, through a study he carried out on CVMs in January 2025, the lack of monitoring of installations and a “general laxity on the risks incurred”.

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A much higher rate

An 80-year-old resident living in Sarthe, on the advice of the association Comité citizen, herself analyzed her tap water in May 2023. The results show; 82 ug/l, while the EU threshold is 0.50 ug/l and that of the WHO 0.30 ug/l… “We know that the longer the water is in contact with PVC, the more it becomes loaded with VCM. However, at the end of the network, there is less demand, it circulates less and it becomes more impregnated”, explains Gaspard Lemaire.

Anses, which is the national health safety agency with it published a report in 2011 detailing that “although no study is available for the oral route to demonstrate the carcinogenic nature of vinyl chloride in humans, the inhalation and ingestion studies available in animals and the evidence of good absorption of vinyl chloride by ingestion in animals support the conclusion that vinyl chloride is also carcinogenic by ingestion for humans”.

The risks involved are significant. The researcher states that “empirical evidence with toxicological studies on animals that have digestive systems close to ours and that develop cancers.” “Hundreds of thousands of people drink water that gives cancer and nothing happens,” he laments.