In northern Italy, around twenty municipalities in Veneto are now classified as a “red zone” by the authorities: their water is polluted with PFOA, a substance from the perfluorinated family, nicknamed “eternal chemicals” for their persistence. in the environment. Exposure to PFOA is associated with certain cancers, bowel or thyroid diseases.
The pollution would come from discharges from a chemical plant in Miteni since the 1960s and until its bankruptcy in 2018. Mothers in the region have set up a collective, Mothers against PFAS, the acronym for perfluorinated. For four years, they have been calling on these substances for which they are calling for a ban. In November 2021, a lawsuit opened against the factory that allegedly caused this pollution.
In 2019, 200 countries, including those in the European Union, banned PFOA
The PFOA has already caused a scandal in the United States. The chemical company DuPont de Nemours, which used it to manufacture Teflon, caused widespread pollution around its factory in West Virginia, by dumping waste into the Ohio River. A scandal denounced by the lawyer Robert Bilott, whose fight inspired the film Dark Waters. The chemical giant had analyzed the toxic effects of Teflon, but the results had remained secret for decades.
Under pressure, DuPont dropped the use of PFOA in 2015. In 2017, the US Environmental Protection Agency fined the company a record $16 million. In 2019, two hundred countries, including those in the European Union, agreed to ban the substance.
An investigation by Laura Aguirre de Carcer, Giona Messina, Clément Voyer, Pierrick Grandouillet, Thierry Mongela and Benoît Sauvage broadcast in “Special Envoy” on May 12, 2022.
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