17,000 sites contaminated in Europe, including 2,100 at levels dangerous to health by so-called “eternal” PFAS pollutants: 17 media, including Le Monde and the Guardian, published Thursday the conclusions of an investigation lasting several months.
Dubbed the “Forever Pollution Project” in reference to these near-indestructible synthetic chemical compounds developed since the 1940s to withstand water and heat, the investigation draws on expert methodologies, data and “thousands of environmental samples” having made it possible to carry out, according to them, the first European mapping of contaminated sites and suspected of being so.
A Norwegian lake, the Blue Danube, a Czech river and huge areas surrounding most of the basins of industrial chemistry… The collective of journalists presents its validated cartography according to “a form of peer-reviewed journalism, on the model of validated scientific work by peers”.
“Our conservative estimate is that Europe has over 17,000 contaminated sites at levels that require policy attention (above 10 nanograms per litre). Contamination there reaches levels deemed dangerous to health by the experts we interviewed (more than 100 nanograms per liter) in more than 2,100 hotspots, ”indicates the French daily.
The journalists also located 20 factories producing PFAS, including 5 in France, and 230 factories identified as users of PFAS, compounds with non-stick and waterproof properties, used in industry and present in everyday objects. common: Teflon products, food packaging, textiles, automobiles. The production plants are mainly located in Germany, the cradle of industrial chemistry with the establishment in particular of the companies Archroma and the Americans 3M Dyneon and W.L. Gore, and in France with Arkema and Daikin south of Lyon, but also Chemours and Solvay.
“Next comes the United Kingdom with three sites, Italy (two), then Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium (one),” adds Le Monde. From these locations, but also from the identification of current or past industrial activities, the journalists identified 21,500 “presumed contaminated” sites in Europe, including areas around airports, which use fire-fighting foam containing PFASs.
“Collected by scientific teams and environmental agencies from 2003 to 2023, the tens of thousands of data collected show it: rare, now, are the places spared by this omnipresent contamination still largely unknown to the public, including the most intimate like ours. own bodies,” the daily adds.
The German, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish health authorities submitted to the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) in mid-January a project aimed at banning these components, supported by other countries, including France, which recently presented its own “action plan”.