2023-12-03 08:12:07
Published on December 3, 2023 at 09:12.
Chemical compounds from industry, PFAS are eternal pollutants, harmful to human health. While Switzerland is slow to establish standards, particularly with regard to drinking water or food, The weather decided to devote a complete file to them.
Wherever we look for them, we find them. PFAS have been found both in the snow of Antarctica and in the deep seabed. At the start of the year, a survey carried out by a consortium of European journalists brought together within the Forever Pollution Project revealed the extent of the contamination of the Old Continent by these substances. By compiling various surveys carried out by scientists and environmental agencies, the authors counted some 17,000 contaminated sites, including more than 2,000 hotspotsareas where the concentration of PFAS reaches a level dangerous to health.
Switzerland is not left out, since the survey identified some 134 problematic sites there. “These results are interesting for what they say about overall pollution by these substances,” notes Yves Degoumois, head of the Polluted Sites, Soils and Groundwater section at the Valais Environment Service. However, they are not relevant for Switzerland. Journalists did not in fact have access to cantonal data, the most comprehensive in this area, but only to controls carried out outside polluted sites by the Federal Office for the Environment.”
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