Baden-Baden (dpa/lsw) – There are new PFC finds in Baden-Baden: According to the city, traces of the environmental toxin were detected in two samples from gardens in the Ooswinkel. More samples are now being taken and analyzed. As a precaution, the city on Thursday recommended residents of 27 gardens not to eat fruit and vegetables grown there for the time being.
The Ooswinkel in Weststadt is a settlement in the style of garden cities. According to the city, some lots in the neighborhood were replaced about 20 years ago because the former workers’ settlement from the 1920s is said to have been built on the site of a former landfill. PFC traces have now been detected in two samples of the exchanged potting soil from a regional compost dealer. The soil was examined because a new tenant wanted to have clarity about the soil.
PFC stands for perfluorinated and polyfluorinated chemicals, which are harmful to health and hardly biodegradable in nature. An environmental scandal surrounding these substances has been moving Mittelbaden for years. By the end of 2008, a company was said to have brought PFC-contaminated compost to fields in Baden-Baden and the Rastatt district in particular. The pollutants later found their way into the groundwater.
