Environment minister says government is taking the issue seriously, promises polluters will pay
Environmental lawyers have lodged a complaint with the Council of Europe over Belgium’s failure to tackle some of Europe’s worst contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS), persistent pollutants for which there is no agreed safe exposure limit.
“I fully understand the concerns expressed; they are legitimate and I have long shared them,” Belgian environment minister Jean-Luc Crucke told Euractiv.
Dubbed ‘forever chemicals’ for their tendency to accumulate in the environment and living tissue, PFAS have been found at high levels around several industrial clusters in Belgium, especially the chemical industry hub around Antwerp.
In the latest case in a wave of litigation over such pollution, the legal charity Client Earth has lodged a complaint with the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) at the continent’s leading human rights body.
