“This is the beginning of the end of the Pfasthe ‘eternal pollutants’”, he announces Joseph Hungarianresponsible for the pollution campaign of Green peace Italycommenting on the decision made by one of the industrial giants Americans. It will be that they fear damage to balance sheets due to requests for compensationbut the major producers e users world championships some Pfas are starting to worry and back off. US industrial giant 3M companyone of the first adopters of substances perfluoroalkyl in a variety of products, has confirmed that it has phased out production by 2025. It makes extensive use of them, producing adhesive tapes, paper (Post-Its), abrasives, films, devices of individual protection, electrical materials, electronic circuits. The Pfas make the material resistant to grease and water, but it’s about chemical substances which, once absorbed by the body, are no longer disposablebecoming the cause of pathologies, such as infertility or i tumors. To scare the multinationals are the lawsuits that can be started by citizens to get the compensation damages or by public bodies to impose the remediation which are very expensive.
Since they have been used for years FiftyPfas have already caused enormous damage to health and the environment. Over United States of America the precedents mainly concern the DuPontdefeated in some very onerous lawsuits, conducted by the lawyer Roberto Bilotto in West Virginia. Now it is the investors themselves who are asking for the definitive abandonment of the Pfaspromoting a transition to achemical industry more sustainable, so as not to see their capital compromised. Suffice it to say that a consortium of investors that manages about 8 trillion dollars in resource corporateformally asked 54 companies to end the use of Pfas. In announcing the reverse, 3M explained that its annual sales of Pfas are about 1.3 billion dollars, equivalent to 3.7 percent of revenues of the group in 2021, which exceeds 35 billion dollars. It is, therefore, one minority percentage and giving it up is indicated by the top management of the group as “the opportunity for a different and more sustainable development”.
The administration too Biden and the Agency for Environmental Protection they are studying the prohibition of use for some chemical substances dangerous. The DuPont group said it is already limiting the use of the substances to “essential industrial applicationsand work with customers to look for alternatives. The perfluoroalkyl substances in Venetostarting with the company Miteni of Trissino (Vicenza), have caused the colossal pollution of the water table in the provinces of Vicenza, Padua and Verona, with a serious contamination of the aqueducts and damage not yet fully quantified to the health of tens of thousands of people. While the process is running for poisoning of waters and disaster unnamed with 13 defendants already owners or directors of the To saythe dismantling of the plants is being completed, which will be brought to India. They were in fact sold in 2019 by bankruptcy guardianship for 4.6 million euros to the holding company Viva Live Sciences Private Limitedwho intends to rebuild the factory a Mumbai.
Good news for the Venetowhich could herald the start of the remediationespecially if the trial were to end with the conviction of Miteni. Knowing i transnational economic mechanismsGiuseppe Ungherese, however, betrays a certain worry: “We hope that the transfer of the machinery to India is not the prelude to the opening of a new plant specialized in the production of Pfas. As you know, move the production from one nation to another does not solve problems, rather it could amplify the contamination globally given that these substances, once released into nature, can spread everywhere”. Time ago Green peace is engaged together with international organizations to prevent the use of Pfas. “It is necessary to ban the global production and the use of these substances, on which we hope theEurope can lead the way” he concludes. The European proposal for the is expected for the second half of January restriction of its use, while two scientific committees Europeans should publish their assessments in the first quarter of 2023 possible restrictions of Pfas in fire fighting foams.
