Around Lyon, in the heart of the Rhône Valley, there are 500 companies in the chemical industry, including that of the Arkema group, one of the giants in the sector. Its specialty: materials derived from fluorine, and in particular perfluorides, chemical compounds nicknamed “eternal pollutants” which are distinguished by their ability to persist in the environment, and the majority of which are toxic. They are found in products as diverse as stoves, raincoats, make-up or pizza boxes. The European Union has placed them on the “black list” of substances to be eliminated by 2024.
In Pierre-Bénite, the area around the Arkema site seriously contaminated by perfluorides
The concern is gaining the inhabitants of Pierre-Bénite, a town near the Arkema factory, who are wondering about the discharges emitted by the site. Arkema refused requests to visit its facilities, then “Special Envoy”, en collaboration with the program “Vert de rage” (France 5), carried out its own investigation with the help of a toxicologist and chemist, the Dutch professor Jacob de Boer, a European specialist in perfluorides.
Soil, air, water and breast milk samples were taken and then analyzed by the professor. The results conclude that there is serious pollution with PFAS, the scientific name for perfluorinated compounds, around the site. They are so alarming that the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, wished to react in person…
An investigation by Martin Boudot, Manon de Couët, Mathias Denizo, Benjamin Chabeau, Grégoire Lenoir, Guillaume Birot, Marc Boulay / Première Lignes, broadcast in “Special Envoy” on May 12, 2022.
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