ClientEarth files PFAS complaint against Belgium; decision expected in 2027

ClientEarth has filed a human rights complaint against Belgium with the European Committee of Social Rights, Euronews reported. The complaint alleges that Belgium failed to protect its citizens from the significant health risks of PFAS, also known as forever chemicals.

Belgium has the highest levels of PFAS pollution of any European country, according to data collected by The Forever Pollution Project.

Major affected sites include Zwijndrecht near Antwerp and Chièvres near the French border, with significant impacts also recorded in Brussels areas of Anderlecht and Uccle. Public agencies in Zwijndrecht knew about the PFAS issue years before the scandal erupted in 2021, Euronews reported.

Members of the Flemish government, including Bart De Wever then mayor of Antwerp and now Belgium’s Prime Minister, were informed of the contamination as early as 2017.

Discussions between 3M and Flemish agencies about pollution near the Zwijndrecht plant date back to the early 2000s. PFAS have been linked to metabolic diseases such as diabetes, decreased fertility and obesity, Euronews reported. Philippe Grandjean, professor of environmental medicine at the National Institute of Public Health in Copenhagen, said the chemicals affect semen quality and increase risks of infertility or involuntary abortion.

He added that PFAS cross the placenta from mother to fetus and are excreted in human milk. In 2023 the World Health Organization classified PFOA as carcinogenic to humans and PFOS as possibly carcinogenic to humans, Euronews reported. The two substances are banned in the EU but persist in soil, water and human blood.