Pollution: the 3M group forced to suspend production at a factory in Belgium

The American multinational 3M was forced on Friday to temporarily halt production at its chemical plant in Zwijndrecht, near Antwerp, in northern Belgium, because of the exposure of local residents to polluting emissions, announced the Belgian authorities.

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"The PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) values ​​measured in the blood of the approximately 800 inhabitants of Zwijndrecht have taught us that for 60% of the population, the cup is full", explained Karl Vranken, the representative of the Flemish government in charge of the file. “Residents have high levels of PFAS in their blood and are wondering what they are going to do. To give them advice, it is important to attack the source of the contamination”, he underlined. These perfluorinated compounds, used in particular in waterproof packaging and 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.

“We have a very clear picture of the contamination of soil, groundwater and food over the past few weeks,” explained Karl Vranken. “The missing component is the airborne spread of PFAS by 3M. Therefore, it is important to understand all 3M processes that cause PFAS emissions, today and in the past. This crucial element will give us a complete picture of the extent of the contamination,” he explained.

One of the compounds of the PFAS family, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), is considered an endocrine disruptor and since May 2009 has been on the list of substances covered by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP), the marketing of which is prohibited except for derogations. The 3M group stopped producing it in 2002, but the results of these blood tests prove that it is still present in the environment twenty years later.