France, United States, Netherlands, Belgium… Actions are increasing against PFAS manufacturers, after pollution of soil or water networks.
(GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/JUSTIN SULLIVAN)
More than 12 billion dollars. This is the sum that the American group 3M will pay to settle a financial agreement in the context of proceedings initiated in the United States relating to the effects of “eternal pollutants”. These are multiplying around the world, as are agreements to put an end to them.
Massively present in everyday life (
Teflon pans, food packaging, textiles, automobiles…
), these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances called PFAS (pronounced “pifasse”) owe their nickname to their very long life cycle and, for some, to their harmful effect on health.
An environmentalist bill aimed at restricting their distribution must be examined Thursday in the National Assembly.
Several criminal complaints have been filed in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
and the French groups Arkema and Japanese Daikin were recently taken to civil court by the metropolis of Lyon.
• 3M: record agreement in the United States
The American group 3M agreed in June 2023 to pay
up to $12.5 billion between 2024 and 2036 as part of the lawsuits
undertaken in the United States by several public drinking water distribution networks, to finance technologies for treating water contaminated by PFAS. This agreement was validated on March 29 by the courts.
It is its aqueous film foam (AFFF),
used by firefighters to extinguish fires before flowing into the ground
, which was particularly targeted. According to the plaintiffs, the company was the only one manufacturing AFFF containing PFAS, a substance associated “with an increased risk of cancer and other serious health problems.”
• 3M already in question in Belgium and the Netherlands
3M, which has already committed to c
stop all manufacturing of PFAS by the end of 2025
concluded an agreement in July 2022 with the regional authorities of Flanders, Belgium, providing 571 million euros to clean up the soil and control possible air pollution around its factory in Zwijndrecht (north).
The Dutch government, for its part, announced in May 2023 that it held 3M “responsible” for the damage caused by PFAS in the Western Scheldt, released by the same factory.
• Chemours, DuPont and Corteva: $1.2 billion
Three other American chemical groups, Chemours, DuPont and Corteva, reached an agreement worth nearly $1.2 billion in June 2023, in order to avoid prosecution for the contamination of drinking water across the United States by PFAS.
• Out-of-court settlement in Australia
The Australian government settled out of court in May 2023 a class action brought after the alleged use on several military bases of “perennial pollutants” which
would have contaminated soil and groundwater.
The agreement, the amount of which is confidential, does not contain an admission of responsibility from Canberra. The class action aimed to obtain 132.7 million Australian dollars (81.5 million euros) in compensation for some 30,000 people.