A water contamination scandal has gripped a leafy corner of southern Belgium, causing anxious residents to queue up for blood tests to confirm potential exposure to so-called “forever chemicals.”
On an early summer afternoon, about a dozen people waited to get their samples taken at a municipal building in the town of Braine-le-Chateau.
“Initially, local authorities told us that measurements were reassuring, but in reality, they didn’t have any and were simply trying to keep people calm as best they could,” said Douglas, a 35-year-old consultant who preferred to only give his first name.
Photo: AFP
“This kind of game has to stop,” he said, adding that he hoped the blood-sampling campaign launched last month would help shed light on the situation.
Anger in the region first erupted in 2023 when an investigation by local broadcaster RTBF revealed that the authorities had ignored longstanding warnings about high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are often called “forever chemicals.” PFAS are a family of synthetic chemicals that take an extremely long time to break down.
It emerged that the US military, which has an airbase in the city of Chievres, had warned the local water company in 2017 about high PFAS levels in drinking water, following an incident involving firefighting foam.
The US base advised its personnel to drink bottled water — but locals were left in the dark for years, even after the regional government was told of the issue in 2018.
Chronic exposure to even low levels of the chemicals has been linked to liver damage, high cholesterol, reduced immune responses, low birth weights and several kinds of cancer.
A group of more than 10,000 human-made chemicals that repel heat, water and oil, PFAS are used in nonstick pans, stain-proof carpets and other products. However, their use is increasingly being restricted across the world due to adverse health effects.
An Italian court last month sentenced executives at a chemical plant to jail terms of up to 17 years for polluting water used by hundreds of thousands of people with the chemicals.
Water samples in Braine-le-Chateau last year revealed levels five to six times higher than a safety standard of 4 nanograms per liter (ng/L) for four PFAS recently agreed by Belgian authorities.
The exact source of the pollution has not yet been confirmed and a judicial investigation is underway.
Authorities have since ordered water distribution firms to install activated carbon filters — a move they said has contained the issue.
Large-scale blood testing was carried out in Chievres last year and later extended to nearby areas.
Authorities said almost 1,300 people across about 10 municipalities had their blood samples taken to confirm exposure to the chemicals in recent weeks. The results, which could lead to new health recommendations, are expected later this year.
The Wallonian government has also decided to bring forward this year new EU rules requiring that drinking water must not exceed a total of 100ng/L for 20 substances in the PFAS family.
“We have taken radical measures and all our distributors are now complying with this standard,” Wallonian Minister of Health, Environment, Solidarity and Social Economy Yves Coppieters said.
Nevertheless, he acknowledged that “the population is very concerned,” adding that without clarity on the source of the pollution, it might take decades to resolve the issue.
“Telling people not to eat their home-grown eggs and vegetables, setting standards for sewage sludge... for now I’m just putting out fires,” Coppieters said. He favors a ban on all products containing PFAS.
Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden have submitted a joint proposal for the EU to ban the production, sale and use of almost all forever chemicals.
The European Commission has said it is looking to ban PFAS in everyday consumer products.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS