Living on a dangerously polluted continent

Imagine being told that your children cannot play outside because the grass and soil in your local area is so polluted that it endangers their health. You are not allowed to eat the eggs from the chickens in your garden because eating them could diminish your immune system and/or lead to certain types of cancer. No, this is not the plot of a dystopian novel these are very real consequences for people living in places that are severely polluted by PFAS. Also known as forever chemicals.

What are PFAS

PFAs are a group of synthetic chemicals that are toxic, mobile, indestructible, and invisible and can be found in every day household items as well as in industrial manufacturing and farming. They are dubbed forever chemicals because they do not break down naturally and accumulate once they are in soil, water, plants and/or bodies where they compromise the immune system and cause disease.

Where do we find PFAS

Everywhere. We find PFAS everywhere because they easily spread out through our waterways and soil, and they build up over decades, leading to extreme levels of pollution. And even when the polluting by dumping or leaking dangerous chemicals stops, the effects of contamination can be felt for decades after. To this date figures estimate that over 23.000 places in Europe have officially been contaminated by PFAS with another 21.500 places marked as suspect.

The consequences of PFAS

The Belgian town of Ronse is such a place where the pollution is so severe that residents have seven times the amount of “allowed” PFAS levels in their blood. Citizens have raised their concerns about the chemical waste that is dumped in a local stream by the textile factory in the middle of town for years. Whilst public health notices about washing hands and leaving shoes outside the house sprung up, the authorities did nothing to actually stop the factory from polluting the area.

After years of inaction by local policy makers, 38 residents of Ronse took matters in their own hands by starting a legal case against Utexbel, a textile manufacturer that uses PFAS in their production processes and has previously been linked to environmental harm on several occasions, to hold it accountable for the harm it causes locally.

In May the Court ruled in favour of the citizens and clearly stated that Utexbel has not done enough to limit emissions and discharges of harmful substances including PFAS, despite having received multiple official cautions. This is a massive step in acknowledging that the factory is wilfully putting the health of Ronse residents at risk, and can finally be held accountable for destroying the local environment and the health of local citizens.

The next step would be to move the factory out of the residential area and relocate it to a local industrial site, moving it out of the direct city centre, but close enough so that local people can keep their jobs. Unfortunately, that will not happen just yet, since the local municipality issued an official planning certificate this week that does not force them to relocate but does keep them to stricter rules in the ways they do business. We will keep our eyes peeled for this story.

And in the rest Europe

But the fight against PFAS is not just a local one. PFAS are difficult to contain because they can travel and transform themselves into different compounds. So we need countries to collaborate on solutions that will protect our water and soil from PFAS beyond borders and jurisdictions. Not only to stop the spread of PFAS but also to actively stop companies from producing, using and dumping hazardous materials that contain PFAS.

Awareness about and opposition against PFAS pollution is growing and concerned citizens are taking matters in their own hands by bringing court cases against big companies. With lawsuits in France, Sweden, Italy, and The Netherlands, you would think that the European institutions responsible for keeping all of us safe would be taking note and working on some all-encompassing strategy to protect people from PFAS contamination.

Getting rid of rules

Alas, decision makers in the European Commission are moving in the exact opposite direction. Rather than strengthening the protections that ensure we can safely drink water from the tap and eat the food from our fields, they are diluting, if not entirely shredding, vital water, environmental and chemical laws.

Ever since the start of the year EU governments and EU institutions have been backtracking on their climate, environmental and social policies designed to protect public health and the environment. Take the Water Framework Directive (WFD) for example, one of the strongest pieces of European legislation to achieve and maintain high water quality standards in Europe, is now being diluted by the European Commission despite stating it as fit for purpose in 2020. The revision allows for more industrial projects that will cause pollution and demands less reporting obligations from national governments when the issue with the WFD has never been the legislation itself but rather the lack of implementation and enforcement. We clearly need the regulation to be stronger in order to keep our waters clean and safe to consume and use.

Weakening these vital protections is senseless, it does away with the protections we need for a safe and thriving natural environment. It would simply make pollution cheaper and expose even more people to pollution.

The cost of inaction is enormous

Apart from the huge impact on people’s lives, the economic costs of pollution are out of this world. According to estimates by the European Commission, forever chemicals pollution could cost the EU €440 billion in damages if nothing is done to keep it in check until 2050. And cleaning up contaminated water alone could cost more than €1 trillion.

So why is there so little action?

Don’t you know that you are toxic….

Because polluting companies want to continue polluting and they have the ear of decision makers who will make decisions in their favour. The EU Commission claims it wants a “toxic free future” but their actions indicate otherwise when their policies on protecting people and the environment are mostly guided by industry lobbyists. Reports show that nearly 70% of meetings held by Commission cabinet members last year were with industry representatives. As if the industry would ever tell decision makers to impose limits on their extraction, pollution and moneymaking. All of this time could be used by the industry to actually diminish the harm they cause and by decision makers to listen to what people want and need.

People need clean water to drink, healthy soil that produces healthy food, and a thriving environment for their families.

The solution is perhaps not simple but it is obvious: ban PFAS!