2024-05-02 08:48:37
On Kadriye Bag/2 May 2024/ 21 Views
Dear friend, dear friend,
On March 19, the metropolis of Lyon filed a complaint once morest two manufacturers Arkema and Daikin.
These companies are accused of being the source of the presence of PFAS in the region’s water catchments. (2)
A few days later, on April 4, 2024, the National Assembly adopted a bill that aims to ban PFAS in certain products, including cosmetics by 2026 and clothing by 2030.
But what are PFAS?
These are chemicals that combine carbon and fluorine.
This is the case, for example, of Teflon, also called Poly Tetra Fluor Ethylene, which was discovered in 1938 by a chemist from the American company Dupont de Nemours (whose founder in the 18th century was French). (2)
These products are also called per- and polyfluoroalkyl or PFAS.
Chemists realized that the bond between fluorine and carbon, combined with other molecules, gave materials that were ultra-resistant to water, fire and even grease. (3,4,5)
They therefore have exceptional resistance properties which make them hard-wearing and practical materials, but they are also “eternal pollutants”. (3)
Once they are in the wild, they are difficult to eliminate. And this is also true in the human body!
They were first used for military purposes in the 1940s.
They were used in particular to cover tanks to protect them from enemy fire.
They were also believed to have been used as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb.
Where are PFAS found?
But following the war, PFAS manufacturers offered their materials to civil society with great success.
And today, we find PFAS in many products such as (4,5):
non-stick pans, medical implants, food packaging, fire foam, firefighters’ clothing, even everyday clothing, stain-resistant coatings, cosmetics, particularly waterproof, IT products, rockets, etc.
Rob Bilott’s offensive
One of the first whistleblowers on the subject was an American lawyer from Cincinnati.
His name is Robert Bilott.
Ironically, he was initially on the side of the chemical industry. (5)
He began his career in 1990.
For 8 years, he helped his clients avoid the environmental standards imposed on businesses.
But in 1998, a farmer called him. He’s a friend of her grandmother’s who lives in West Virginia. His cows die one following the other.
It happens so quickly that he doesn’t even have time to bury them. He must burn the corpses.
He is desesperate.
Rob Bilott agrees to delve into this file which becomes his whole life. (5)
In 2001, he filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 3,000 farmers once morest Dupont de Nemours.
In 2017, justice ruled in his favor.
The company is ordered to pay $617 million in compensation for harm caused to farmers by PFAS emitted by Dupont factories.
In 2016, he joined the board of directors of the Next Generation Choices Foundation, a nonprofit that fights for cancer prevention.
And in 2018, Robert Bilott filed a new class action once morest Dupont, Chemours, and 3M for the pollution that these industrial groups caused.
This resounding trial inspired the film Dark Waters which allowed the American and English-speaking public to understand the phenomenon. (5.6)
What are the health risks of PFAS?
It was time.
Because PFAS are substances that are particularly harmful to human health and the environment.
Since the 1990s, numerous studies have appeared on the subject.
It appears from the scientific literature that PFAS (7,8,9):
weaken immunity, increase the risk of cancer, reduce fertility, cause liver damage, increase the risk of type II diabetes and obesity, threaten the development of fetuses, etc.
Since December 1, 2023, the International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified some of these substances as certain carcinogens (PFOA), other probable carcinogens (PFOS). (9)
The problem is that PFAS represent 10,000 to 14,000 molecules according to estimates. (3.4)
And each time one of them is banned, the manufacturers find a replacement that no one has yet evaluated.
What legislative response should we provide?
The health and ecological emergency is very real.
In France alone, there are more than 100,000 sites contaminated with PFAS.
This contamination comes first from the factories that produce them.
France has five sites at risk:
1 Chemours installation in Oise, 2 installations for Solvay in Jura and Gard, 2 installations near Lyon in Pierre-Bénite, one for Daikin and the other for Arkéma.
The problem is that this economic activity represents several thousand jobs.
Banning these substances entirely would be dangerous for many families who depend on these activities.
But in the meantime, populations exposed to fumes from production sites are directly threatened.
And because of their resistance, these chemical molecules are found almost everywhere: in groundwater, in rivers, springs and in the air.
For the moment, the legislator is trying to distinguish between essential and non-essential uses of these products.
Thus, PFAS might be banned in cosmetics and non-professional clothing, but maintained for firefighter outfits or military equipment.
Obviously, we must get away from these harmful productions.
The European Union might ultimately ban the use of all of these molecules. (6)
But it would be good if such measures were accompanied by a healthy reindustrialization plan, an ecological made in France, so to speak.
But is it realistic?
Naturally yours,
Augustine of Livois
1715030834
#Institute #Natural #Health #Protection #PFAS #tide #turning #good
