Several hundred environmental activists took action on Saturday inside the Arkema AKE.PA group factory in Pierre-Bénite, near Lyon, and eight of them were arrested by the police.
“An action was carried out by radical activists against the Arkema company in Pierre-Bénite at the beginning of the afternoon,” declared the prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region on X, specifying that eight people were arrested.
The activists, members of the Extinction Rebellion and Youth for Climate associations, are demanding “the depollution of areas impacted by PFAS” contamination, or per and polyfluoroalkyls, they indicated in a press release published on X.
PFAS, also called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down, are used in tens of thousands of products, including cars, textiles, medical equipment and wind turbines.
Activists also demand “recognition and compensation for the harm” suffered by people who came into contact with these substances, and that the chemicals used by Arkema be subject to independent scientific studies.
In a press release, Arkema condemned the action of the activists and declared that the site had “put in place in November 2022 a filtration system allowing it to reduce at this stage the releases of the fluorinated additive used by more than 90%” .
Arkema, whose Pierre-Bénite site has already been targeted by environmental action in 2022, will file a complaint.
The factory, adds the group, “will be able to manufacture its products without any use of fluorinated additives by the end of 2024”.
(Written by Kate Entringer, with Dominique Vidalon)