“The Arkema chemical plant in Pierre-Bénite has taken the decision to recommend not consuming fruit and vegetables from the vegetable gardens it owns, located in the immediate vicinity of the site”. The group’s communication department confirmed, on Friday, information from France 3according to which the company had sent a letter to this effect to some sixty tenants of the vegetable garden, located in “the chemical valley”, near Lyon, because of the presence of eternal Pfas pollutants.
According to Arkema, this recommendation follows “preliminary results of analyzes carried out at the end of 2022” which must still be the subject of “final results of the assessment of potential risks”. This study, launched following a prefectural decree of June 14 and available on the site of the Regional Directorate for the Environment (Dreal), noted an overrun: it concerns a level of PFNA (one of the Pfas pollutants) “up to 25 times the benchmark value on carrots” in the immediate vicinity of the industrial platform.
A “premature” decision for the prefecture
For the prefecture, Arkema’s decision is premature. “It is based on results that are not scientifically valid,” she says, because they still have to be verified by a second opinion from the State services, as prescribed by the decree which ordered the analyses. “Representatives of the Arkema group were received recently to remind them of their obligation to respect the roadmap defined by prefectural decree”, warns the prefecture.
The Arkema factory in Pierre-Bénite is also the subject of an environmental criminal summary, filed in May by around forty associations and individuals who are demanding sanctions against the manufacturer and a study of the health risks linked to Pfas. Some plaintiffs say they suffer from “endocrine disruption” and “testicular cancer in a child under two years old”, diseases potentially linked to these eternal pollutants, according to their lawyer.
Arkema assured when announcing this collective complaint that “the Pierre-Bénite site complies with all regulations regarding its industrial discharges and is regularly checked by the authorities”. The manufacturer has installed a filtration station since the prefect’s decree, making it possible to drastically reduce these discharges. The plaintiffs ask that the water also be treated before it is used.