What are 'forever chemicals' and why do they matter?
The sleepy small town of Trissino lies at the foot of the Italian Alps, surrounded by lush fields, green hills and small industrial plants on its outskirts.
Though there is nothing to suggest that gigantic quantities of drinking water and large parts of the soil in the entire region have been contaminated with extremely toxic chemicals from a local chemical facility, that is what a court in Rome recently concluded.
In a case that opened in 2021, 11 defendants were sentenced to years in prison. They had worked for the Japanese Mitsubishi Group and Chemical Investors from Luxembourg, among others. According to estimates by non-governmental organizations, the contamination could affect around 350,000 people in the northern Italian region of Veneto.
What are
forever chemicals
?
Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compounds, PFAS for short, are extremely persistent chemicals that cannot be broken down.
Once they enter the environment, they remain there "forever."
Scientists have established a link between PFAS and liver and kidney damage, increased cholesterol levels, diseases of the lymph nodes and reduced fertility in men and women. According to the German Federal Environment Agency, it also leads to low birth weights in babies, can reduce the effectiveness of vaccinations and cause cancer in high concentrations.
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The chemicals are considered a global problem and can be detected almost everywhere.
In 2018, scientists at Harvard University found that 98% of US citizens have PFAS in their blood. Studies on breast milk in countries such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines detected the substances in almost all samples. In Germany, too, every child has forever chemicals in their bodies. A fifth of them exceed critical levels.
From the atom bomb to the plate
PFAS were discovered in 1938 by the American chemical giant DuPont. Due to their special properties of protecting metal from corrosion even at high temperatures, the chemicals were first used in the development of the atomic bomb.The substance later found its way into households worldwide under the brand name "Teflon" in the form of coated pans. This marked the beginning of the commercial rise of the chemicals, which proved to be useful for many products.
With their unique resistance to heat, water and dirt, they are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. They can be found in everything from waterproof outdoor clothing, makeup and stain-resistant carpets to medical devices, semiconductors and wind turbines.
The chemicals, which are mainly ingested through drinking water and food, accumulate in the body over time. In addition to breast milk and blood, they can also be detected in hair.
Decades of concealing the danger
In 1998, the non-stick coating of Teflon was clearly scratched when a hundred cows belonging to a cattle farmer suddenly died near a production facility in the US city of Parkersburg in West Virginia.
It was later revealed that thousands of people in the region were contaminated by a leaking dump and wastewater from the DuPont factory that contained PFAS.Documents show that DuPont, unlike government authorities, had known about the danger for decades but continued to discharge the substance into the environment.
Studies suggest that high levels of PFOA (a specific PFAS substance) in the region are linked to cases of kidney and testicular cancer.
In 2017, DuPont and the now-spun-off company Chemours agreed to pay $671 million (€574 million) in compensation to 3,550 people affected.
Europe plans a phase-out
PFAS are still being released into the environment. The US environmental organization EWG has calculated that almost 10,000 locations across America are contaminated with the substances.
This is based on measurements by the US Environmental Protection Agency, among others. It is estimated that around 160 million people could be affected nationwide.
In Europe, 23,000 sites are known to be contaminated with PFAS. According to the European Environment Agency, 2,300 of these are so heavily contaminated that they pose a health risk.
In Alsace, France, the authorities are currently warning people not to drink tap water after checks revealed elevated levels of 20 forever chemicals.
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