More than 1,500 families are believed to be living unknowingly on land suspected by the Flemish government of being contaminated by PFAS, reports De Tijd on Saturday.
The findings follow an examination of a list from the Flemish Region’s public waste company (Ovam). This service has been investigating around 5,000 at-risk sites since the end of 2021. According to the initial analysis, homes are located on 1,523 of the sites. However Ovam intends to refine the list before communicating the pollution risks to residents, explains its spokesperson Jan Verheyen.
Ovam has stated that the data it has available does not allow it to deduce whether PFASs have actually been used on these plots of land. In order to ascertain whether they are polluted or not the company hopes that they will first be checked by the local authorities during the summer.
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“The local authorities must carry out a second inspection. Once this check has been carried out, the list will be made available and will be included in the soil condition database." Ovam does not rule out the possibility that many places will be added or removed.
PFAS are per- and polyfluoroalkylated substances that are massively present in everyday life. They accumulate over time in the air, soil, river water and food. If ingested, they can build up inside the human body, presenting a significant health risk. Also known as "forever chemicals, they are very poorly degradable.
