Good morning!
If you are a resident of planet Earth, you’ve probably seen it already: This week, PFAS yet again made headlines across Europe as the Forever Lobbying Project, a huge cross-border investigation, exposed the ongoing orchestrated lobbying and disinformation campaign by the chemical industry and its allies as they aim to water down an EU ban on “forever chemicals” and shifting the burden of environmental pollution onto society, aka you and me.
Like the substances themselves, the news is everywhere, from national news channels like France 2 and Tagesschau to internationally renowned outlets like The Guardian, Le Monde, and Financial Times to activists on social media.
☣️ WHAT’S THE P-FUSS ABOUT?
Forever chemicals: PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances), more popularly known as “forever chemicals”, are a set of over 10,000 manmade chemicals with unique properties—non-stick, water-repellent, stain-proof and resistant to very high temperatures—that make them highly versatile and very popular.
The more you know: In fact, you are probably in contact with them often as they are found everywhere, from your everyday items like frying pans, dental floss, smartwatches, drinking water, makeup, and children’s toys to more specialised uses like firefighting foams, air conditioners, refrigerators and medical equipment. They are hard to escape even if you try…
But not all that glitters is gold: PFAS come with serious consequences. They are nearly impossible to break down and accumulate in living organisms, with links to cancers, immune system and hormone disruption, infertility, and other health issues.
Leeching lobbies: PFAS have even been found in the blood of unborn babies. Only yesterday, a medieval-sounding headline emerged that residents of Jersey were recommended bloodletting to lower the level of PFAS in their blood after their drinking water was contaminated with firefighting foams.😱
Remember when smoking was cool? Once upon a time, the tobacco industry convinced us that life without cigarettes wasn’t worth living. Then we wised up to the fact that they were profiting by poisoning us. Also, like the tobacco industry, the chemicals industry has known about the hazards of PFAS for decades but has chosen to conceal the evidence.
Priceless: As if the cost to our health wasn’t enough, the cost of cleaning up the mess they’ve made is astronomical. The Forever Lobbying Project also reveals that if chemical pollution remains unrestricted, the true cost of cleaning up PFAS contamination in Europe will amount to €2 trillion over 20 years or an annual bill of €100 billion. Worse, it won’t be industry but society that is forced to foot the bill…
Take action: If you’re feeling helpless in the face of these revelations, look no further! Sign our petition for a toxic-free future and tell our leaders to ban forever chemicals! It should be the most obvious thing, but here we are.
🚫 UNDUE INFLUENCE
The proliferation of PFAS is only half the scandal. The issue paints a bigger picture of the unbalanced nature of corporate lobbying in Brussels. You can’t turn the corner of a street in the European Quarter of Brussels without bumping into a corporate lobbyist (often with the same playbook under their arms). Sure, businesses have the right to be represented in the Brussels bubble, but what happens when this representation happens to come with glitzy parties, alpine hikes and free office space? This was already exposed in the agricultural industry last year when De Smog exposed the deep ties between agri lobbies and Europe’s right-wing politicians.
Democracy for sale: The widespread PFAS pollution in Europe and across the globe demonstrates the perverse role of industry lobbies in the design of regulation. Chemicals enter the market within weeks but take years—often decades—to regulate. This is not rocket science. The burden should be on the industry to prove a chemical is safe for public health and the environment before going not just to market. Not the other way around! Why isn’t this already the case?!
This is also doubly damning in light of the recent increase in attacks on environmental defenders and environmental NGOs in democratic decision-making. This role is safeguarded in European and international law precisely because protecting public health and the environment is in everyone’s interest. The environment is a voiceless stakeholder, and not all people are able to join decision-making processes. Decision-makers undermining the EU’s democratic values and selling out to industry lobbies should expect backlash down the line when people who have understood the harm to their health and the planet start pointing fingers.
🚨 SOUND THE ALARM
Dancing with the devil: We have been sounding the alarm for some time. From the beginning of the European Parliamentary elections, it became clear that in this mandate, the institutions would wash off some of their green paint to win over big businesses with its promises to ‘simplify’ the rules (translation: deregulate). In reality, this translates to prioritising corporate profits over public welfare and environmental sustainability.
Many rules exist for a reason: Dismantling laws that protect consumers, workers, and the environment will catalyse a self-destructive race to the bottom. Yet again, short-term political gains seem overshadowed by long-term and widespread pain. What we need is smart regulation and implementation, not deregulation because of someone’s worldview.
Health vs. climate? The chemical industry often acknowledges the health risks of PFAS but presents a false dilemma: banning them would supposedly hinder the development of cleantech like e-vehicles, heat pumps, and hydrogen. This familiar tactic from laggard industries ignores a key fact: regulation drives innovation.
A good example: Thanks to EU regulations mandating the gradual phase-out of F-gases—a leading source of PFAS pollution—the European market is already shifting toward non-toxic alternatives like natural refrigerants. There’s no conflict between health and climate; we just need to guide the market toward safe and sustainable products. History shows that bans are a proven and effective way to make it happen.
🤔 TIME FOR DEREGULATION. REALLY?!
#NoToOmnibus: At the end of last year, Ursula von der Leyen announced her intention to reform a series of laws passed under the EU Green Deal that required businesses to address climate change through a so-called ‘Omnibus Proposal’. The Omnibus, which would target the Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), the Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Taxonomy, risks being a trojan horse, enabling corporations to strip vital climate and human rights provisions from these hard-won laws.
No competitiveness on a dead planet: This is not the time to underestimate corporate accountability. While some of the world’s biggest corporations made record profits last year, their investments fall far short of what is needed to transition to sustainable and resilient business models. We join over 160 civil society organisations, trade unions and activists calling on the EU Commission to protect these corporate accountability laws, reaffirm the official timeline for their transposition and implementation, and be fully transparent about the Omnibus process.
In need of a laugh after all that? Chloé Mikolajczak’s series on industry lobbies will have you doubled up (as well as informed)💚
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By: Ruby Silk Special thanks to the EEB’s editorial team: Roi Gomez, Ben Snelson, Alberto Vela and Carlotta Di Pasquale, and to our guest contributor Beatriz Ortiz-Martinez. Editor: Christian Skrivervik.