2023-05-02 13:29:54
Who remembers the “PCB scandal” (pronounce [Pé-cé-bé], French, abbreviation of polychlorinated biphenyls)? These chlorinated chemicals, widely used since the 1930s for their electrical insulation properties, were banned in 1988 in France because of their toxicity to living organisms. But, in 2007 (i.e. 20 years later!), they were still found in the rivers, in particular throughout the chemical valley, on the banks of the Rhône where the producing industries were once located. The biological death of the Rhône was then decreed by prefectural decree: the fish there had become unfit for human consumption, and could no longer be fished.
In 2023 (i.e. another 16 years later!), the media have gotten tired of fishing there again. And yet PCBs have not disappeared. While they were, although very persistent, considered “biodegradable” over time, we continue to discover significant contamination spots, and this, well beyond the Rhone Valley: the soils of the Ile-de-France region are full of them. ! The eggs of the domestic hens who peck there are even contaminated, to the point that on April 19 the Regional Health Agency of Île-de-France formally advised against their consumption… their PCB content exceeding 40 to 50 times the standards Europeans! The mystery is such that the City of Paris immediately called for an investigation to identify the origin of this pollution, to which is added that of other persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as dioxins and furans… (2).
Will we find the culprit? The same question arises in the valley of chemistry: at the beginning of January, the Rhône prefecture announced that it had detected there concentrations almost ten times higher than normal of perfluorinated compounds (3) in the eggs of domestic hensand prohibited at the beginning of April to consume them
.
Predictable but inevitable pollution? These perfluorinated compounds are PFAS [Pi-Fass](pronounce in English, abbreviation of per – and polyfluoroalkyls), pollutants which accumulate in our bodies and the environment, and do not degrade – earning them the frightening label “Forever Chemicals” (i.e. “ eternal chemicals »)
… Since the 1950s, they have beenubiquitous in everyday objects and industrial products, from non-stick pans to Gore-Tex® clothing and fast-food packaging waxing products for skis, fire-fighting foams, but also… some two hundred pesticides and several dozen drugs, includingguitar pick ®, some antidepressants etanti–inflammatory . While some of these compounds have been banned, they still represent a huge family of over4,000 compounds. And we will have to deal with them for a long time to come. I’ European Chemical Agency (Echa), although fully aware of their dangers, can only ban them one by one for the moment, due to regulations that are more favorable to manufacturers
than to consumers… (4). And report commissioned last year on PFAS
(5) by Barbara Pompili, then Minister of Ecology, was made public on April 14, 4 months late – and under pressure from the Robin des Bois association… whereas this report formulates in its recommendations the need to inform the population!
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Perfluorinated: an insidious contamination Unsurprisingly, the report points to awidespread PFAS contamination … But, as the Robin des Bois association reminds us in its analysis of this report (6), PCBs are still widely present in the environment,focusing on PFAS alone does not address all the problems, and in particular the cocktail effect of these pollutants
… That said, “we have to start with something” and our government happens to have a plan d’action against PFAS! Launched in January (7), it aims to “reduce industrial emissions”… Except thatwe know very little about these emissions, companies having the right not to communicate them in the name of industrial secrecy
… Those who do not reduce them, or even exceed the standards, will be very difficult to punish ! The “polluter-pays” law included in the 2007 National Environmental Charter seems set to remain foreverdead letter
. As for our health, no law today seems able to protect it…
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Exposure to certain perfluorinated drugs could advance menopause by two years
It should be noted that these restrictions obviously do not concern industrial farms which certify through their controls that their eggs or their meat comply with the standards for PCBs, PFAS and other pollutants… one wonders by what miracle!
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#Pollutants #justice