Three American chemical groups will pay nearly 1.2 billion dollars to avoid prosecution for the contamination of drinking water in the United States by PFAS, “eternal pollutants” (AFP/Archives/Fred TANNEAU)
Three U.S. chemical companies reached an agreement on Friday to pay nearly $1.2 billion to avoid lawsuits over contamination of drinking water across the U.S. with PFAS, “eternal pollutants.” .
In a press release, the companies Chemours, DuPont de Nemours and Corteva announced that they had reached “this agreement in principle to settle all lawsuits related to complaints of drinking water contaminated with PFAS in public water distribution networks”.
A total of 1.185 billion will be paid, including 592 million dollars by Chemours, 400 million by DuPont de Nemours and 193 million by Corteva.
Perfluorinated (PFC) and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) compounds are a family of synthetic chemical compounds comprising more than 4,700 molecules, some of which are suspected of having a harmful impact on health.
They owe their nickname to their very long life cycle.
In addition, according to information from Bloomberg, the giant 3M would have signed the principles of an agreement worth at least 10 billion dollars to settle other lawsuits related to PFAS brought by several American municipalities and cities.
Questioned Friday evening, 3M had not yet responded. The deal will need to be approved by a judge.
These perfluorinated compounds are used, for example, in fire extinguishing foams used by firefighters and will then contaminate runoff water.
© 2023 AFP
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