An amicable settlement was found with the Flemish government to try to provide answers after pollution to the chemical substances from the PFAS family (perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyls), around the Zwijndrecht site.
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The American multinational 3M has reached an agreement with the regional authorities of Flanders (Belgium), Wednesday, July 6, to remedy a total of 571 million euros in polluting discharges around its factory of Zwijndrecht, near Antwerp.
The Flemish government and 3M Belgium stressed that this out-of-court settlement resolved “ongoing disagreements” linked to persistent pollution by chemicals from the PFAS family (perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyls). These products, used in particular in packaging and waterproof coatings, have already earned 3M legal action in the United States because of discharges that have contaminated drinking water. They can be found in soils, air, dust.
The settlement of this Belgian litigation will lead to the recording by 3M of a provision for “extraordinary charges” in its financial statement for the second quarter of 2022, specifies the joint press release (in English). An amount of 120 million had already been promised by 3M, but the overall envelope of 571 million euros will allow a series of “corrective actions” to decontaminate the soil or better control the potential dispersion of PFAS in the air. The additional sums should in particular help the regional government in its soil and environmental protection policy.
This pollution of the soil and groundwater around the Antwerp factory was strongly denounced in June 2021 by the NGO Greenpeace. It had been highlighted during analyzes carried out after excavations linked to the work to extend the ring road of the port city. The levels of pollution deemed to be worrying concerned, among other things, PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate, from the PFAS family. The 3M group stopped producing it in 2002, but it is classified as a persistent organic pollutant. the PFOS considered an endocrine disruptor.
From July 2021, the authorities of Flanders had invited a thousand residents to have blood tests performed to measure their exposure to pollutants (traces of which can be found on the shells of eggs produced on the farm, in the drinking water or on the fruits and vegetables of neighboring market gardeners). The results that fell at the end of October had been judged “very bad”. A study based on 796 blood samples revealed that 59% of the inhabitants of this area had a very high concentration of PFOS, with “possible adverse long-term health effects”depending on the region.