2025-01-14

BRUSSELS - Over a year, a team of 46 journalists in 16 countries investigated an ongoing massive, orchestrated lobbying and disinformation campaign led by the PFAS industry and their allied organisations to water down a proposal to ban “forever chemicals” in the EU and shift the burden of environmental pollution onto society, threatening the economic equilibrium of European nations.

The cross-border interdisciplinary investigation with the participation of 28 media partners also reveals for the first time a staggering cost reaching €2 trillion over a 20-year period to clean-up legacy PFAS pollution and ongoing emissions in Europe, with an annual bill of minimum €100 billion to remediate emissions, if these remain unrestricted. Who will pay, if the polluter does not?

PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a family of over 10,000 man-made chemicals widely used in consumer products and industrial processes and equipment, from toilet paper to cable insulation in rockets. Their miracle properties, however, have fateful downsides. Their persistence in the environment makes them almost indestructible without human intervention. PFAS are also toxic, and linked to cancers, hormonal and immune disruption. 

Key findings:

  • PFAS remediation across Europe could cost up to €2 trillion over a 20-year period to clean-up legacy PFAS pollution and ongoing emissions in Europe, with an annual bill of minimum €100 billion to remediate emissions, if these remain unrestricted. 
  •  Pushing the boundaries of journalistic investigation into lobbying and misinformation through an academic approach, the Forever Lobbying Project team subjected the key arguments deployed by lobbyists in the plastics sector to a stress test, showing that most of them were misleading, scaremongering and even false. 

The Lobbying arguments stress-test methodology was developed with Gary Fooks (University of Bristol, UK) and the Cost methodology – with Ali Ling (University of St. Thomas School of Engineering, US) and Hans Peter Arp (Norwegian University of Science and Technology and Technology and Norwegian Geotechnical Institute).

The team built on the concept of “expert-reviewed journalism”, pioneered in 2023 with the Forever Pollution Project, this time involving 18 international academics and researchers in Zürich, Stockholm, Toronto, or Rotterdam, from environmental chemistry to AI. 

The journalists collected over 14,000 unpublished documents on PFAS, constituting the world’s largest collection to date on the topic. This trove of documents is now available to the public in the Industry Documents Library at the University of California, San Francisco, home of the famous “Tobacco Papers”, and in the Toxic Docs database of Columbia University, New York, and City University of New York. 

The team worked in multiple locations:

  • Zwijndrecht, Belgium;
  • Pierre Bénite / Rumilly, France;
  • Alessandria, Italy;
  • Ilia region, Greece;
  • Doetinchem / Dordrecht, Netherlands;
  • Tyrifjorden lake, Norway;
  • Ronneby, Sweden;
  • Istanbul, Turkey;
  • Chièvres, Belgium;
  • Thornton Cleveleys, UK.

Photo: Contaminated soil from Zwijndrecht, Belgium © Forever Lobbying Project

Team members

Eurydice Bersi

Eurydice Bersi is an investigative journalist based in Athens, Greece.

Stéphane Horel

Stéphane Horel (France) is an investigative journalist at Le Monde.

Stéphane Horel

Ana Tudela

Ana Tudela is investigative economic journalist and co-founder of DATADISTA (Spain).

Ana Tudela

Antonio Delgado

Antonio Delgado is data journalist and co-founder of DATADISTA (Spain).

Antonio Delgado

Sarah Pilz

Sarah Pilz is a freelance investigative journalist from Germany.

Sarah Pilz

Elisabetta Tola

Elisabetta Tola is an Italian journalist and science communicator.

Elisabetta Tola

Marco Boscolo

Marco Boscolo is an Italian freelance journalist and science writer. 

Marco Boscolo

Matej Zwitter

Matej Zwitter is a qualified engineer from Slovenia who strayed into the domain of journalism. 

Matej Zwitter

Gianluca Liva

Gianluca Liva is an Italian science journalist and science communicator.

Gianluca Liva

Marta Frigerio

Marta Frigerio is an award-winning investigative journalist from Italy.

Marta Frigerio

Anna Violato

Anna Violato is an environmental journalist based in Bologna, Italy.

Anna Violato

Zeynep Sentek

Zeynep Sentek is a Turkish journalist based in Portugal.

Zeynep Sentek

Craig Shaw

Craig Shaw is a British journalist and editor.

Craig Shaw

Staffan Dahllöf

Staffan Dahllöf is a freelance reporter based in Copenhagen, specialised in FOI.

Staffan Dahllöf - ©Olle Asp

Léopold Salzenstein

Léopold Salzenstein is a investigative data journalist based in the south of France.

Léopold Salzenstein

Luc Martinon

Luc Martinon is a French freelance data-journalist based in Berlin.

Luc Martinon

Bijou van der Borst

Bijou van der Borst is an investigative journalist based in the Netherlands. 

Bijou van der Borst

Leana Hosea

Leana Hosea is an investigative journalist and co-founder of Watershed Investigations

Leana Hosea

Rachel Salvidge

Rachel Salvidge is an environmental investigative journalist and co-founder of  Watershed Investigations.

Maj-Britt Horlacher

Maj-Britt Horlacher is an investigative journalist at Swiss Public Broadcast SRF.

Maj-Britt Horlacher

Felicitas Flohr

Felicitas Flohr is s Swiss journalist.           

Felicitas Flohr

Raphaëlle Aubert

Raphaëlle Aubert (Paris) is an investigative data journalist at Le Monde.

Raphaëlle Aubert

Romane Bonnemé

Romane Bonnemé is an investigative journalist at RTBF.
 

Émilie Rosso

Emilie Rosso is a French TV journalist.

Émilie Rosso

Laura Fazzini

Laura Fazzini is a freelance journalist based in Milan, Italy.

Laura Fazzini

Cemre Demircioğlu

Cemre Demircioglu is an Istanbul-based video journalist and project coordinator.

Cemre Demircioğlu

Jose Miguel Calatayud

Jose Miguel Calatayud is a freelance journalist and writer based in Berlin.

Jose Miguel Calatayud

Tiina Lundell

Tiina Lundell is an investigative reporter at the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle).

Tiina Lundell

Tarjei Leer-Salvesen

Tarjei Leer-Salvesen is a freelance investigative journalist based in Norway.

Tarjei Leer-Salvesen

Daniel Värjö

Daniel Värjö is a climate and environment reporter and investigative journalist based in Sweden.

Daniel Värjö

Zuzana Vlasatá

Zuzana Vlasatá is a Czech investigative reporter and editor.

Zuzana Vlasatá

Emiel Woutersen

Emiel Woutersen (1991) is an investigative journalist with Platform Investico.

Emiel Woutersen

Lea Busch

Lea Busch is a German investigative journalist.

Lea Busch

Catharina Felke

Catharina Felke is a German investigative journalist.

Catharina Felke

Daniel Drepper

Daniel is an experienced investigative journalist and editor based in Germany.

Daniel Drepper

Brigitte Alfter

Brigitte Alfter is a senior German-Danish journalist, director for Arena for Journalism in Europe.

Brigitte Alfter

Nadja Tausche

Nadja Tausche is a journalist for Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Nadja Tausche

Aleksandra Pogorzelska

Aleksandra Pogorzelska is a journalist with the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens ETC.

Aleksandra Pogorzelska
Media

Datadista

Datadista is a Spanish digital media oulet specialised in investigative journalism, (info)graphics and statistics.

datadista

Reporters United

Reporters United is a network of reporters aiming to support investigative journalism in Greece.

Reporters United

RADAR Magazine

RADAR is an independent group of journalists and photographers in Italy.

Radar Magazine

Oštro

Oštro is a centre for investigative journalism established in Slovenia.

Oštro
Supported
€39,000 allocated on 19/02/2024
ID
ENV1/2024/381

PRINT

  • Cost to clean up toxic PFAS pollution could top £1.6tn in UK and Europe, The Guardian, 14/01/2025, pp. 1, 14, 15
  • Het PFAS-vervuiler betaalt? De gemeenten weten beter, Het Financieele Dagblad, 14/01/2025, pp. 18-21
  • PFAS : le coût vertigineux de la dépollution de l’Europe, Le Monde, 15/01/2025, pp. 18-20
  • 3M knew firefighting foam contained toxic 'forever chemicals, files reveal, The Guardian, 15/01/2025, pp. 20-21

ONLINE

RADIO

DOCUMENTARY

COUNTRIES

  • Belgium  
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • Finland
  • France  
  • Germany  
  • Italy
  • Greece  
  • Netherlands  
  • Norway  
  • Slovenia  
  • Spain
  • Sweden  
  • Switzerland  
  • Turkey  
  • UK  

need resources for your own investigative story?

Journalismfund Europe's flexible grants programmes enable journalists to produce relevant public interest stories with a European mind-set from international, national, and regional perspectives.

Apply

support independent cross-border investigative journalism

We rely on your support to continue the work that we do. Make a gift of any amount today.

Donate