
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The journalists collected over 14,000 unpublished documents on PFAS, constituting the world’s largest collection to date on the topic.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
- 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
- PFAS: The astronomical cost of depolluting Europe, Le Monde, 14/01/2025
- PFAS: How Le Monde estimated the cost of decontaminating Europe, Le Monde, 14/01/2025
- Les PFAS, une famille de 10 000 « polluants éternels » qui contaminent toute l’humanité, Le Monde, 14/01/2025
- Cost to clean up toxic PFAS pollution could top £1.6tn in UK and Europe, The Guardian, 14/01/2025
- Industry using ‘tobacco playbook’ to fend off ‘forever chemicals’ regulation, The Guardian, 14/01/2025
- Alerta PFAS: Papeles Secretos, Contaminación Química, Datadista, 14/01/2025
- De gladde micro-killer, De Groene Amsterdammer, 14/01/2025
- Alerta PFAS: 70 años de engaños de la industria química que ya han llegado al grifo y a tu sangre, El Diario, 14/01/2025
- Angriff der PFAS-Lobby, SDZ, 14/01/2025
- Descontaminar las PFAS le costará a Europa entre 95.000 millones y 2 billones de euros, swissinfo.ch, 14/01/2025
- PFAS-Sanierungen: So steht es in Ihrem Kanton, SRF, 14/01/2025
- Wie Habeck der Chemie-Lobby auf den Leim geht, Tagesschau, 14/01/2025
- PFAS: il conto salato pagato dai cittadini per avere acqua pulita, Il Bo, 14/01/2025
- Slankemiddelgigant truer med utflagging, Klassekampen, 14/01/2025
- Myrkky juomavedessä, Yle.fi, 01/12/2024
- Ikuiset kemikaalit myrkyttivät joen, Yle.fi, 02/12/2024
- Ikuisia kemikaaleja on löydetty jopa lasten hedelmäsoseista – nyt saatiin arvio, paljonko niistä eroon pääseminen maksaa, Yle.fi, 14/01/2025
- Näin muoviteollisuus on yrittänyt perustella ikuisten kemikaalien käytön jatkumista – terveysongelmat sivuutettiin, Yle.fi, 14/01/2025
- PFAS-Skandal: „Die Unternehmen haben die Gefahr aktiv vertuscht“, t3n.de, 14/021/2025
- PFAS: Was du über die umstrittenen Chemikalien wissen musst, t3n.de, 14/021/2025
- Opruimen PFAS-vervuiling kost nu al bijna 70 miljoen euro, Investico, 14/01/2025
- 2.000.000.000.000: Το αβάσταχτο κόστος των αιώνιων χημικών PFAS, Reported United, 14/01/2025
- 100 milliards d’euros par an pour décontaminer l’Europe des PFAS, RTBF, 14/01/2025
- Inside the unprecedented lobbying effort to sway the EU on PFAS “forever chemicals”, The Black Sea, 14/01/2025
- Scandale des polluants éternels : à Rumilly, les habitants et Tefal face à l’ampleur de la contamination aux PFAS, France 2, 15/01/2025
- ‘High-risk sites’: where are the UK’s ‘forever chemical’ hotspots?, The Guardian, 15/01/2025
- 3M knew firefighting foams containing PFAS were toxic, documents show, The Guardian, 15/01/2025
- Das Billionen-Euro-Problem: Sanierung von PFAS-Verschmutzung extrem teuer, SDZ, 16/01/2025
- Otters among UK wildlife carrying toxic ‘forever chemicals’, analysis shows, The Guardian, 17/01/2025
- UK failing to match EU in fight against ‘forever chemicals’, say scientists, The Guardian, 17/01/2025
- Les PFAS, révélateurs de l’opacité de l’action publique en Europe, Le Monde, 17/01/2025
- Lobbying campaign against PFAS ban highlights opacity of European decision-making, Le Monde, 17/01/2025
- Pfas in Europa: 40 anni di inquinamento, ma il profitto vince su tutto, La Via Libera, 20/01/2025
- Le nettoyage des PFAS pourrait coûter jusqu'à 26 milliards à la Suisse ces vingt prochaines années, 27/01/2025
- Novo Nordisk advarer om produktionsstop og medicinmangel ved et PFAS-forbud, Investigative Reporting Denmark, 06/02/2025
-
How 'forever chemicals' ban could threaten pharma production in Europe, EUObserver, 10/02/2025
RADIO
- Lobbying für PFAS - der Widerstand gegen das Verbot wächst, NDR.de, 14/01/2025
- PFAS-Experte: "Chemikalien-Einsatz aufs Minimum beschränken'", NDR.de, 14/01/2025
- Del 1: PFAS-gifternas svindlande miljardnota, Sveriges Radio, 14/01/2025
- Del 2: PFAS-striden i EU och industrins missvisande kampanjer, Sveriges Radio, 14/01/2025
- Växande kemikalieskandalen – rena vatten kan kosta miljardbelopp, Sveriges Radio, 14/01/2025
- Kemikaliekris höjer vattenräkningen – så påverkas Sverige, Sveriges Radio, 14/01/2025
- Faktafel kan vilseleda EU i beslut om giftförbud, Sveriges Radio, 14/01/2025
- Kemikalieindustrins lobbytaktik: ”Styr forskningen”, Sveriges Radio, 17/01/2025
- Chemical reaction: Inside the corporate fight against the EU’s PFAS restriction, Corporate Observer Europe, 14/01/2025
DOCUMENTARY
- Vergiftet - Die Macht der Chemielobby, ARD1, January 2025
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.
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.