She lost both her parents and partner to cancer and at the age of 45 she discovered that she had been living with the disease for years. Meta Kamphuis (49) lives close to the chemical company Chemours and wants the factory to close. “I guess it all comes down to that.”
Meta has joined the weekly demonstration in front of the gate of the chemical company Chemours factory in Dordrecht. Together with the campaigner from Health for Everything, she demands that the factory, from which she lives 200 hundred meters away, be closed as quickly as possible. “People sometimes ask why I don’t leave. But it doesn’t work that way.”
Died of cancer
When she was 17 years old she lost her father to cancer, 1 year later she lost her mother to the same disease. She discovered at the age of 45 that she had been living with colon cancer for years. She recovered, but shortly afterwards lost her partner to the disease. As if all the misery wasn’t enough, last year her sister was also diagnosed with colon cancer.
All that adversity made her think. She had her genes checked to rule out that there was nothing hereditary in the family. “That wasn’t the reason. And it had to come from somewhere.”
Similar cases
“I’ve lived close to that factory all my life,” she refers to Chemours, the chemical company in Dordrecht that was previously called DuPont. “I ate the pears from the garden and swam in the water here. No, I can’t make it hard. But I do suspect that it has to do with the factory.”
She hears many more similar cases around her in Dordrecht. “In this small neighborhood alone, there are 4 percent more cancer cases. In Sliedrecht this is even higher, according to the Cancer Atlas.”
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Declaration
Lawyer Bénédicte Ficq is filing a complaint against the chemical company on behalf of approximately 3,000 people. This focuses on (former) managers for discharging harmful PFAS substances. This has endangered the health of local residents for years, Meta believes. She is one of the people represented by Ficq.
She doesn’t do it for herself, but so that others don’t get sick anymore. “We have to fight for all the children here and the children of the future. That is why I want the factory’s permit to be revoked as soon as possible.”
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Theo takes ex-employer DuPont/Chemours to court: ‘Wants recognition that I became ill there’
Never the same again
It’s already too late for her, she says. Because although she recovered from cancer, she never completely recovered. “My body is destroyed and the immune system is compromised.”
“I have developed polyneuropathy as a result of chemo. That is damage to the nerve endings. When it is warm, I am okay, but when it is cold, I no longer have that feeling and there is a chance that I will fall over.” Then my feet no longer feel so good,” she says.
Future is bright
“I am now 49 years old and have so many members. I am much too young for that. And leave? If I don’t live here, someone else lives here, who will then become ill. We have the right to a healthy living environment.”
Despite all the misery for her and her family, Meta sees a bright future, she says. “Because I see it happening that the factory will close. Then a beautiful nature reserve can be created here again.”
audio-play
View the report about the demonstration at Chemours here
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2023-09-23 15:37:30
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