What many local residents have suspected for years was confirmed by the RIVM on Friday afternoon: there is a direct link between health damage and emissions from the Tata Steel steel factory.
In a report of more than two hundred pages, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment notes that local residents live an average of 2.5 months shorter due to the factory’s emissions. This is mainly due to particulate matter and nitrogen dioxides. These emissions also mean that Tata Steel is responsible for 4 percent of future lung cancer cases in the region, and 3 percent of asthma cases in children.
The RIVM has been investigating the situation in the vicinity of Tata Steel (approximately 9,000 employees) for years, but has never established such an explicit link between health complaints and the factory. Four questions about the research and its consequences.
1 Why this report now?
In recent years, RIVM has conducted a lot of research into health and emissions in the region. For example, the institute looked at the use of medicines by local residents, the precipitation of heavy metals and the concentrations of particulate matter in the air. In 2021, the RIVM already concluded that PAHs (a group of carcinogenic substances) and lead in the Tata Steel environment could be dangerous for children playing outside.
In Friday’s report, RIVM builds on all the knowledge from previous studies, in which it was able to establish a link between health complaints and the factory with additional calculations. In other words: after years there is enough data to make this connection.
There is one more thing. The client for this report is the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management – instead of the province. The ministry wants agreements on health to be a condition for any subsidy to Tata Steel for greening. The government has been in consultation with the company for months about financial support in switching to less polluting techniques for making steel (Tata Steel currently emits 7 percent of the total CO2emissions from the Netherlands).
The ministry therefore wanted to know from the RIVM what needs to change to improve the health of local residents. The state aid agreements must in principle be finalized by the beginning of 2024. If a new cabinet follows through with these plans after the elections in November, that is.
2 Isn’t it already known that more cancer occurs in the vicinity of Tata Steel?
In 2020, the GGD conducted research into lung cancer in the IJmond region. The conclusion was that the disease is more common there than in other parts of the Netherlands. However, the GGD could not establish a link with Tata Steel. The service pointed out that smoking is relatively common in the region. In addition, the GGD noted that cancer cases that occur now often have causes that date back a long way. In the past, Tata Steel’s emissions were much higher than now.
The RIVM has now looked at current emissions and what consequences they will have for cancer cases in the future. This resulted in the aforementioned 4 percent.
3 Can action be taken at Tata Steel based on this report?
Two years ago, the RIVM published the report on lead and PAHs in the vicinity of the factory. Responsible deputy Jeroen Olthof (PvdA) then lashed out at the factory: he wondered aloud whether there was a future for the steel industry in the region. According to him, this was only there if the factory would quickly become cleaner.
In 2021, the question arose as to how politicians could enforce this – and the answer is still largely the same: legally speaking, this is extremely difficult.
Tata Steel generally meets legal standards for emissions. It is therefore very difficult for the province, which monitors through the environmental service, to intervene. In recent years, the environmental department has tried to tighten Tata Steel’s numerous permits as much as possible, but regularly finds the factory in court as an objector.
It is significant that the agency has been conducting legal research for months into the possibilities of closing Coke Gas Factory 2 – the most polluting part of the business. It is far from certain whether there are options for this.
There are similarities here between Tata Steel and the Dordrecht chemical factory Chemours. Chemours may emit the toxic substances PFAS, and the Provincial Council decided on Wednesday afternoon that the provincial government must investigate whether the permit can be revoked. However, Deputy Frederik Zevenbergen immediately warned that this is very difficult, because Chemours adheres to the permits as far as is known.
4 How have different stakeholders responded?
The interest group for local residents, FrisseWind.nu, called the report “bizarre and unacceptable” on Friday. She calls for immediate steps to stop emissions. FrisseWind.nu also wants compensation for the damage suffered. The organization has had a claim case underway since last month, in which it wants to hold the factory liable for health damage. With the latest report they apparently have an important new asset to demonstrate this.
The province of North Holland said in a response on Friday that it will continue to insist on stricter regulations in The Hague in order to be able to issue stricter permits. However, many regulations on factory emissions are made in Brussels, and the process for this is slow and dependent on what other countries think.
Tata Steel emphasized on Friday what it has said many times after RIVM reports: various, extra-legal measures are being worked on, some of which are already having an effect and some have not yet been completed. This includes ‘dust screens’, filters on installations and extraction systems. The company hopes to complete the final measures in 2024 and 2025, after which the aim is to have significantly reduced emissions.
A version of this article also appeared in the September 23, 2023 newspaper.