“We are on the eve of a major health scandal”, exclaims Jean-François Baudin, president of the regional network of AMAP (Association for the maintenance of peasant agriculture). It alerts the State services since the first readings of PFAS, perfluorinated and polyfluorinated, in the town of Pierre-Bénite, south of Lyon. These indestructible chemical compounds are called “eternal pollutants” because they have been developed since the 1940s to resist water and heat.
A journalistic investigation, published Thursday, also revealed contaminated sites in Europe, including “hot spots”, those whose concentration of these toxic products detected reaches a level that experts consider dangerous for health, i.e. more than 100 ng / l . Pierre-Bénite is one of them with Arkema, which produces PFAS and where 273.992ng/l were recorded and 16.054 ng/l for the plant next door, Daikin.
“It is very worrying to discover that there are substances in our environment that poison us and that can accelerate or be the source of fatal diseases,” says this representative of AMAP farmers in the Rhône. According to the European Environment Agencythese perfluorinated and polyfluorinated compounds, which include 4,700 chemicals, can lead to “health problems such as liver damage, thyroid disease, obesity, fertility problems and cancer”.
“Tens of thousands of families exposed”
Before the publication of the study, the State services had already done research on this geographical area. Chemical substances were then found in eggs and in leafy vegetables such as lamb’s lettuce. “The fishing federation of the Rhône department also carried out analyzes on the fish which concluded that contamination with PFAS was flagrant and worrying, continues the representative of the association. She advises against consuming fish caught in the Rhône and the Garon. This industrial disaster will therefore permanently affect the production of our farmers. »
According to this study, the sectors irrigated by the Syndicat mixte d’hydraulique agricole du Rhône (SMHAR), are also contaminated by these pollutants. “Which means that people can be affected as far as the Camargue,” says Jean-François Baudin. He then estimates that a “thousand of farmers” are concerned and “consequently, tens of thousands of families are exposed”.
Make the factories pay and protect the peasants
The president of the AMAP regional network then asked the State for the means to anticipate this “crisis” by accelerating studies and implementing depollution actions. “Organic farmers, who have chosen to have a lower impact on the environment by not using any pesticides harmful to human health and that of biodiversity, end up with pollutants in their production, develops- he. It is not their fault, it is that of those industrialists who pollute. The farmers are worried because they are afraid that people will turn away from their product by saying that they are unfit for consumption. »
He calls for the establishment of compensation from Arkema and Daikin towards these AMAP farmers if their activity drops because of these readings. “We cannot continue with impunity to pollute, to have an impact on the lives of others, without consequences. »
The Confédération paysanne du Rhône has, for its part, called on farmers to refuse the checks – which are carried out on a voluntary basis – by the Regional Directorate for Food, Agriculture and Forestry (Draaf) on PFAS as long as “the prefecture offers nothing in protection or compensation if the controls are positive”. It also asks “to anonymize the results of the analyzes” by leaving only “the geographical sectors” in order to “protect against the damage suffered”. “It is urgent to solve this problem, to protect the populations and the peasants”, she concludes.