The researcher quoted in your disturbing report on Sweden’s Pfas (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) scandal says her work feels like trying to catch a runaway train (Poison in the water: the town with the world’s worst case of forever chemicals contamination, 19 June).
Kallinge is one of a growing list of European towns with extreme levels of Pfas. In fact, there are tens of thousands of contaminated sites. It is time to slam on the brakes. There is a lot of talk about clean-up technologies and how these might solve the problem. But relying on clean-ups is like bailing out a sinking boat with a teacup while the crew is busy drilling new holes in the hull. Legislation is urgent and essential. Indeed, Europe has a detailed plan to ban all Pfas, and with strict time limits on transitions to safe alternatives.
But now Brussels says that, instead, it intends to exclude these chemicals from consumer products only. These account for barely one-fifth of all Pfas emissions, so banning them would only slow the rate at which they accumulate in water, soil and human tissue. Such a partial ban would be a short‑sighted capitulation to commercial interests and a free‑market ideology that opposes all regulation.
Even when we halt the Pfas locomotive, we will be cleaning up this mess for decades to come.
Jonatan Kleimark
Head of corporate sustainability, ChemSec (International Chemical Secretariat), Gothenburg, Sweden
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