Annick Schaependonck (56) is sitting with her legs crossed in the waiting room of a clinic in Zwijndrecht, under the smoke of Antwerp. She nervously taps her feet back and forth. In her hands she holds a form on which she has filled in information about her education, origin and medical history.
This Monday morning she is one of the first residents of the 3M chemical factory in Zwijndrecht to have her blood tested for the presence of PFAS, a collective name for more than six thousand types of plastics and microplastics.. They are released during the production of non-stick coatings, cosmetics and cleaning products, and can have adverse effects if they enter the body, including hormonal imbalances and all kinds of cancer.
Schaependonck, chief inspector of the police in a neighboring Flemish municipality, did not hesitate for a moment when the Flemish government called for a large-scale blood test in mid-May. She has lived three kilometers from the factory with her husband and two sons for almost twenty years and wants to know whether she, like her 22-year-old son, also has “a sky-high amount” of PFAS in her blood. “That would mean that we have been permanently poisoned for almost 20 years.”
More than 75,000 people who live within three miles of 3M were invited to participate in the survey in recent weeks. So far, 9,000 people have responded to the call. “Too little,” says Flemish Health Minister Hilde Crevits on behalf of the Christian Democrats at the start of the investigation.
The Flemish government launched the largest blood test for PFAS ever conducted in Europe as a follow-up to a smaller study from 2021, the results of which were alarming. In the summer of that year, PFAS was found in the soil for the first time during work on the Oosterweel connection near Antwerp, which was linked to 3M. When it became apparent that the PFAS extended beyond the factory grounds and unrest arose, work was started on a larger investigation.
Read also: Europe is slowly starting to realize how great the PFAS danger is
Wide radius
A series of measures were taken within a wide radius around the factory. Local residents were advised not to consume vegetables from their own garden. Measures for anglers were also introduced in the Dutch part of the Western Scheldt. According to the RIVM, they should not eat too much fish and shrimp anymore, because PFAS were also found in them.
When 3M refused to provide data on PFAS emissions in October 2021, the American group had to temporarily halt production in order to restart part of it in June. The company has now indicated that it will stop producing PFAS worldwide in 2025, because it realizes that it will have to modernize due to stricter environmental regulations. This is in line with the wishes of the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Denmark to introduce a total ban on PFAS. After an earlier ban on PFOA, the Dutch company Chemours from Dordrecht already switched to the chemical GenX, which is also hardly degraded in the environment.
Photos Katrijn van Giel
Last year, 3M pledged an amount of 571 million euros to remediate the contaminated soil around Zwijndrecht and agreed to pay compensation to the Flemish government of 100 million euros. That money went into a fund “so that the taxpayer does not have to notice” the approach to PFAS pollution, said Flemish Environment Minister Zuhal Demir. But that may be too late for thousands of people around Zwijndrecht.
The first study from three years ago examined 796 people who lived within three kilometers of the factory. PFAS was found in everyone, and more than half of the people had PFAS levels that are “excessively high from a health point of view.”
The presence of PFAS in the body can lead to a limitation or dysregulation of immunity, disruption of hormone balance and liver and thyroid function. According to a Belgian study among 303 young people who live within a radius of five kilometers from 3M in Zwijndrecht, PFAS can lead to a disruption of the hormone balance in the body of young people. This in turn can cause problems with fertility.
3M has always maintained that PFAS does not lead to health problems, even though it found back in 1976 that employees had up to 300 times more PFAS in their blood than it considered normal, according to a 2018 investigation by whistleblower website The Intercept.
I often wonder: was I well taken care of?
“We were shocked by our son’s result,” says Annick Schaependonck in the clinic. “He has had a girlfriend for a while and they are serious. What if they can’t have children in the future? And I may have an increased risk of cancer.”
People like Annick Schaependonck are also in danger of getting into financial trouble. Her mortgage lender was quick to report that her owner-occupied home in Zwijndrecht would fall in value if it turns out that the soil has been contaminated by 3M.
A surprising development in the 3M file from a week ago caused some optimism. An Antwerp justice of the peace, who intervenes in neighbor disputes in Belgium, sentenced 3M to pay a provisional compensation of 2,000 euros to a family living one kilometer from the factory for ‘excessive neighbor nuisance’. This was the first time that a judge in Belgium ruled against the activities of the chemical company. That is not to say that there is also evidence of criminal offenses committed by 3M. An indictment against the company from 2021 – by multiple environmental groups with the aim of getting 3M convicted of environmental crimes – has not yet been dealt with substantively.
Minister Hilde Crevits said on Monday that the results expected in 2025 “are not intended to start procedures”. The Flemish government first wants to gain insight into the harmful effects of PFAS “to provide clarity to troubled people”, and will later see whether additional actions against 3M are necessary.
On the street, 62-year-old Marc peers through the windows of the clinic. He says he worked in 3M’s maintenance department for 25 years. When he retired two years ago, “the fuss” about the factory had just begun. “They had already tested me five years earlier, and then found a too high concentration of PFAS. But that was true for everyone. I have no complaints to this day, although they had to remove half of my thyroid gland when I worked there for five years.”
He smiles awkwardly. “I regret the fuss for the company. But lately I’ve been wondering more and more: was I actually well taken care of?”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of May 23, 2023.