Chemical company knew years of PFAS-LOZINGEN in Helmond’s sewer

A factory in Helmond that processed Teflon powder for the Dupont chemical company (now Chemours) has dumped waste water with high concentrations of PFAS in the sewer for years. This is evident on Thursday from documents in the hands of the television program Zembla. The factory has contaminated the waste water with high concentrations of PFAS for at least 15 years. This happened with the knowledge of Dupont, former employees of the Helmond company Custom Powders report Zembla.

It is estimated that thousands of kilos of dumped kilos of the so -called PFOA in Helmond’s waste water reports Zembla. PFOA is a now forbidden and carcinogenic chemical that is released during the production process of Teflon powder.

Since 1996, chemical company Dupont has delivered wet Teflon to Custom Powders, who then dried it and lived back to the chemical company. During the drying process, polluted water was released that was taken directly to the sewer, according to the documents.

It is not the first unveiling Zembla does in the context of harmful chemical emissions through the chemical company. From previous research The television program has already been shown that the Dupont chemical company is also guilty of too high PFOA emissions in the environment around factories in Dordrecht and the United States, and hid this for years. The internal documents of the factory in Helmond show an even larger cover -up than was already known.

A thousand times too much PFOA in blood

From the documents, in the hands of Zemblait appears that Dupont has certainly been reminded since 2011 from the too high PFOA emissions through the factory in the area. In 2007 the blood of employees in Helmond was examined by Dupont. This showed that the measured PFOA values ​​were much higher than the worrying concentrations found in the blood of Dupont employees in Dordrecht and the United States. One of the employees in Helmond appears to have concentrations in his blood that are a thousand times higher than the current standard that RIVM considers safe.

The employees of Custom Powders were told by Dupont that exposure to PFOA would not be unhealthy. In a statement, the British company announced that it has always had the required permits that were issued on the basis of the « full safety and environmental information of Chemours. » The Custom Powders factory went bankrupt at the end of last year due to a claim from the municipality due to too high emissions of chemicals.

For the discharge of PFOA to the sewer, the municipality wants to submit a claim to Chemours, responsible alderman Arno Bonte Journalists of Zembla know. In a response to Zembla, Chemours does not know the documents it has in his hands and says that « according to the then applicable legislation » no crucial information has been withheld. The responsibility also shifts to the custom Powders in « complying with the obligations from its permits. »

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