Tricino’s small sleeping city is located in the leg of Italian Alps, surrounded by small industrial plants in succulent fields, green hills and its outskirts.
However, there is nothing to suggest that the large amount of drinking water and large part of the soil in the entire region have been contaminated with highly toxic chemical feature with a local chemical feature. But this is what has recently concluded by a court in Rome.
In a case opened in 2021, eleven defendants were sent to jail in years. He worked for the Japanese Mitsubishi Group and Luxembourg’s chemical investors, among others.
According to estimates from non-governmental organizations, about 350,000 people in the Northern Italian region Veneto can be affected by contamination.
What are chemicals forever?
Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl compound, pfas for small, is extremely persistent chemicals that cannot be broken. Once they do the environment, they remain ‘forever’.
Scientists have established a link between PFA and liver and kidney damage, cholesterol levels, diseases of lymph nodes and lack of fertility in men and women. According to the German federal environmental agency, it leads to low birth weight in infants, can reduce the effectiveness of vaccination and cause cancer in high concentrations.
Chemicals are considered a global problem and can be detected almost everywhere.
In 2018, scientists at Harvard University found that 98% of American citizens have PFAS in their blood. Studies on breast milk in countries such as India, Indonesia and Philippines were able to detect substances in almost all samples. Even in Germany, every child has chemicals forever in the body. One of them fifth east -surreal level.
From atomic bomb to plate
In 1938, PFA was discovered by American Chemical Giant Duppont. Due to their special properties of metal protection even at high temperatures, chemicals were previously used in the development of atomic bombs.
This substance later found its way as a pomp in homes around the world under the brand name “Teflon”. It marked the beginning of the commercial rise of chemicals, which proved useful for many products.
With their unique resistance to heat, water and dirt, they are used in a wide range of consumer and industrial products. They can be found everything from waterproof outdoor clothes, makeup and stained carpets to medical devices, semiconductors and wind turbines.
Chemicals, which are mainly intestated through drinking water and food, accumulate in the body over time. In addition to breast milk and blood, they can be found in hair.
Decades of hiding danger
In 1998, the non-stick coating of “Teflon” was clearly scratched when a hundred cows belonging to a cattle farmer suddenly died near a production facility in the American city Parkersburg in West Virginia.
It was later revealed that thousands of people in the area were contaminated with a leak dump and waste water from the Duppont factory, including PFA.
Documents suggest that Dupont, unlike government officials, was known about danger for decades, but continued to discharge the substance in the environment. Studies show that high levels of PFOA (a specific PFAS substance) in the area are associated with cases of kidney and testicular cancer.
In 2017, DuPont and now spoon-off company Camourse agreed to pay a total of $ 671 million (€ 574 million) in compensation to impress 3.550 people.
Europe is planning a phase
PFAs are still staying in the environment. The US environmental organization EWG has calculated that around 10,000 places across the US are contaminated with substances. It is based on measurement among others by the American Environmental Protection Agency. It is estimated that around 160 million people may be affected nationwide.
In Europe, 23,000 sites are known to be contaminated from PFAS. For the European Environment Agency, 2.300 of these are so highly contaminated that they pose a health risk.
In the Alsaas of France, the authorities are currently warning people that 20 after the check, 20 were found to be high levels of chemicals forever.
And in Dalton in the US state of Georgia, a lawsuit is currently having files against a carpet manufacturer, chemical and chemical company 3m. Residents there fear that they have fallen ill due to PFAS contamination.
The legally binding boundaries for six PFAS chemicals in drinking water were first adopted under former US President Joe Bid. The Trump administration has reversed four of them.
In 2023, the 3M group agreed to pay about $ 10 billion to local water suppliers to settle the cases on PFAS pollution and which could have arisen in future. 3m therefore sued for contamination in the Netherlands, another country where it operates.
The European Union recently passed the law with the aim of reducing the use of thesis substance. In the long term, members are trying to completely eliminate the state PFA. Exceptions are to be made for products whose use of PFA is “necessary for society”. It may include, for example, searching for medical materials as stent to open and close blood vessels or artificial joints.
This article was the original published in German.
