This week's move, by the European Food Safety Authority, would vastly lower the recommended exposure levels of PFAS in food and water.

The European shift in health warnings closely follows the much lower PFAS "allowable limits" being adopted right across the United States.

The Federal Office of Health Protection's principal medical adviser Dr Gary Lum revealed this week that Australia was watching the European move closely.

Dr Lum was speaking to a Parliamentary committee on Australia's current advice in Canberra this week.

For the most part, Dr Lum repeated current Australian expert medical advice on PFAS of their being "insufficient evidence" of PFAS causing health risks.

The "Expert Health Panel", formed in 2017 to advise the Federal Government on rising concerns about PFAS, there was no evidence of human health impacts from PFAS.

The panel's chair, Professor Nick Buckley, repeated the advice at a meeting in Katherine in July 2018.

The European Food Safety Authority this week released its second opinion on PFAS for public comment saying new scientific research had changed its previous advice.

It wants to replace its previous recommendations of four key PFAS chemicals from "tolerable daily limits" to weekly limits in an acknowledgement of health risks.

In Australia, the PFAS limits in drinking water were lowered by Food Standards Australia New Zealand in 2017 - it led to the introduction of water restrictions in Katherine.

Dr Lum told the parliamentary committee this week he "expected" FSANZ would have a closer look at the new European position on PFAS health advice.

He said there was a lot of research into PFAS going on around the world.

He said there were still limitations on the worth of shorter-term studies.

"For it (results) to be meaningful it needs to be looked at over a longer term," he said.

He also said animal research, often the focus for PFAS studies, did not always translate well to humans.

In July 2019, enHealth, charged with providing health advice to Australian and New Zealand citizens, upgraded its warnings on PFAS.

But while repeating the advice for people to minimise their exposure to PFAS, enHealth said: "PFAS has not been shown to cause disease in humans."

Australia is soon expected to produce a second version of the National Environmental Management Plan for PFAS which is also expected to address current Australian thinking on the chemicals.

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