Credit: Jasper Rietman







The Forever Pollution Project

By Tim Luimes, | 1 March, 2023

Over a year ago, Tim Luimes, member of The Investigative Desk, came up with the idea to start a cross-border project about “forever chemicals” PFAS and the contaminated sites all across Europe. What followed was an exclusive, months-long investigation by 18 European newsrooms. Together with a colleague of The Investigative Desk, Tomas Vanheste, and research partners from Le Monde, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Radar Magazine, WDR, NDR and Watershed, amongst others, the team discovered that more than 17.000 sites across Europe are polluted with these chemicals.

We are very proud to share the results of the Forever Pollution Project with you. You can read a few examples out of many publications below. For more information about the project and to read all the publications, visit the website.

THE CHEMICAL DANGER NEAR THE CHEMOURS FACTORY IN DORDRECHT (NRC)

As companies found more and more PFAS applications in the past decades, scientists got a sharper focus on its toxic effects. Regulators were forced to tighten standards for production and use again and again. In the meantime, the almost non-recyclable substances ended up everywhere in the soil, in groundwater, and in humans. Chemours in Dordrecht will sharply reduce its emissions of PFAS and other hazardous substances over time. Scientists and campaigners think it is insufficient. “These emissions are life-threatening.”

Read the full story in NRC (in Dutch).

SLOWLY EUROPE IS REALISING HOW BIG THE PFAS PROBLEM IS (NRC)
Every day, a producer of PFAS on the banks of the Rhine in Germany discharges this chemical into the river. About a hundred kilometres from there, the river flows across the border, into the Netherlands, where people already take in too much PFAS, partly because of the high amounts in our rivers. This is only one of 17 detected active producers of PFAS, and it is the first time PFAS manufacturers across Europe have been identified.
Read the full story in NRC (in Dutch).

‘FOREVER POLLUTION’: EXPLORE THE MAP OF EUROPE’S PFAS CONTAMINATION (Le Monde)
More than 1.000 contaminated sites and 5 of the 20 European PFAS production facilities have been identified in France. Manufacturers in the “chemical valley,” seem to be at the origin of the largest PFAS pollution to date in the country. Le Monde also reveals that Rumilly, the hometown of the worldwide famous brand of non-stick cookware Tefal, is highly contaminated.
Read the full story in Le Monde (in English or French).

MINISTERS TOLD TO GET A GRIP ON SCALE OF ‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’ POLLUTION IN UK (The Guardian)

The UK government must get a grip on the scale of “forever chemicals” polluting rivers and seas and threatening human and animal health, says Green MP Caroline Lucas as Tory colleague calls for monitoring.

Read the full story in The Guardian (in English).

PFAS: THE POISON OF THE CENTURY (Süddeutsche Zeitung)

All over Germany, more than 1500 sites have been contaminated with the forever pollution PFAS. That’s way more than has been publicly known. Reporters from NDR, WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung have identified several hundred additional sites of presumptive contamination all over Germany. The investigation shows that in many cases, citizens haven’t been informed about the contamination in their neighborhoods. Also, internal documents prove how the chemical industry tried to delay regulation of the forever chemicals in Germany.

Read the full story in Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German).

For more information about the project and to read all the publications, visit the website.

More investigations