A total of 140 people, residents of the municipalities of Ronse, Kruisem, Kortemark, Ostend and Stabroek, had themselves tested in the study by vzw Climaxi. Three-quarters of them have PFAs levels in their blood that pose a health risk. This means that the values are higher than the health limit set by Europe of 6.9 micrograms per litre. In eleven of them, the values even exceeded 100 micrograms per litre.
“That is worrying, because from 100 micrograms per liter there can be real effects on the immune system,” says professor of toxicology Jacob de Boer (VU University Amsterdam), who helped analyze the results. “That’s the side effect of pfas that scientists are most concerned about.”
Even higher levels of PFAS in the blood can interfere with pregnancy, raise cholesterol, speed up or slow down thyroid function, or even cause kidney and testicular cancer. People who live close to industry or landfills where there is a lot of pfas pollution usually have the highest values in their blood, especially if they also eat eggs and vegetables from their own garden or use well water for drinking or cooking.
Problem-Ronse
There are also differences per municipality. “The biggest problem is really in Ronse,” says de Boer. “High concentrations have already been found in the soil there. But now we see that the median of pfas values is 76 micrograms per liter, with peaks of up to 351 micrograms per liter. That is way above the norm.”
In Ronse, eight workers who work in two textile factories, Associated Beavers and Utexbel, were also tested. Seven of them showed too high values in their blood. In Kruisem, Kortemark and Ostend, the median among the tested residents is also too high. In Kruisem, values up to one hundred and twenty times greater than the European standard were even found in two people.
It is the first time that groups of people outside Antwerp have also been tested for pfas levels in their blood in a study. After all, the Flemish government currently only organizes such a large-scale blood test in the area around the 3M factory in Zwijndrecht. You can have an individual test at the doctor, but that costs between 60 and 200 euros.
Climaxi therefore demands that the Agency for Care and Health extends that investigation to all other no-regret zones. These are zones where residents already have to take extra precautions to try to limit exposure to pfas. The climate organization wants such screenings to be reimbursed or free. In addition, she demands that the government communicate better no-regret measures and accelerate the remediation of contaminated sites.
“We already knew that pfas is widely distributed in Flanders,” says Filip De Bodt of vzw Climaxi. “But we find it very alarming that we find outliers of 300 to 800 micrograms per liter in the blood. Especially if we compare the results with the slowness with which a number of governments take action. This is subsidized poisoning of the population.”
