{"id":459357,"date":"2026-07-09T10:59:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T08:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/07\/09\/clientearth-contro-il-belgio-il-paese-con-piu-pfas-in-europa-lo-sa-e-non-agisce\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:50:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T09:50:37","slug":"clientearth-against-belgium-the-country-with-the-most-pfas-in-europe-knows-it-and-isnt-acting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/07\/09\/clientearth-against-belgium-the-country-with-the-most-pfas-in-europe-knows-it-and-isnt-acting\/","title":{"rendered":"ClientEarth against Belgium: the country with the most PFAS in Europe knows it, and isn\u2019t acting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cBelgium is home to the highest levels<\/a> of PFAS pollution in Europe \u2013 and it\u2019s poisoning entire communities and workplaces,\u201d warns <\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>ClientEarth, a non-profit organisation<\/a> of legal experts defending the environment, which accuses the<\/span><\/span> Belgian government of failing to tackle pollution. \u201cWe\u2019ve launched a landmark human rights legal complaint against the Belgian government over its failure to tackle this pollution and protect citizens\u2019 rights to health.  <\/strong><\/span>We want to force Belgium to adopt stronger measures to stop ongoing pollution and better protect communities across the country,\u201d the non-profit organisation said in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the most polluted sites in Belgium are: the area defined as 3M plant<\/font><\/span> <\/a><\/span> in Flanders, where PFAS are believed to have been produced from the 1970s until 2024 and where, in 2001, levels were <\/span>reported to be thousands of times<\/a> above safety levels; another <\/span>plant<\/font> <\/span><\/a>in Flanders; and <\/span>una base<\/span><\/a> an air force base in Wallonia<\/a>; and even in <\/span>tap water in Brussels that has been found to be contaminated<\/font>.<\/span><\/a> According to investigative reports, <\/span>in 2017, the US military had already identified contamination in the local water supply and alerted the Belgian authorities, who, however, did not inform the public.<\/strong> Consequently, residents were not informed and only learned years later, thanks to media investigations. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The lawyers argue that the country is violating the right to health enshrined in the European Social Charter<\/a> (Article 11), as \u201cthe government\u2019s systemic failure has resulted in public health and the environment being harmed, and children disproportionately so.<\/strong>\u201d They have therefore lodged a complaint with the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR), a legal mechanism that allows trade unions, employers, and non-governmental organisations to report violations of the principles of the \u2060Charter. <\/a>“<\/span>While the European Committee of Social Rights cannot impose fines, its decisions carry significant political and legal weight<\/strong> and have previously led governments across Europe to change laws and public policies,\u201d said ClientEarth\u2019s lawyers. \u201cThe solution is simple: the government needs to ban all PFAS as soon as possible,\u201d said ClientEarth\u2019s lawyer, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Duguy<\/strong>.<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a family of over 10,000 synthetic chemical compounds that have been used since the 1950s to make products water-repellent, grease-resistant, and heat-resistant. They are known as <\/span>\u201cforever chemicals\u201d<\/b> because they do not break down naturally and accumulate in the environment and in the human body. Ongoing scientific research shows that exposure to certain PFAS can cause serious <\/span>health conditions<\/font>, <\/span><\/a>including cancer, infertility, liver disease, obesity, and diabetes. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 \u201cBelgium is home to the highest levels of PFAS pollution in Europe \u2013 and it\u2019s poisoning entire communities and workplaces,\u201d warns ClientEarth, a non-profit organisation of legal experts defending the environment, which accuses the Belgian government of failing to tackle pollution. \u201cWe\u2019ve launched a landmark human rights legal complaint against the Belgian government over its failure to tackle this pollution and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7908,"featured_media":459319,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30961,25774],"tags":[25801,31280,27669,34766,33360,26076,26810,34767,34768,26640,32255,27246,26326,28807],"class_list":["post-459357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-salute-en","category-in-brief","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-bruxelles-en-3","tag-bambini-en","tag-clientearth","tag-contaminazione","tag-environment-en","tag-news-europe-and","tag-fabbriche","tag-fiandre","tag-health","tag-pfas-en","tag-inquiry-en","tag-states-united-en","tag-vallonia-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7908"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":459358,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459357\/revisions\/459358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}