Residents demonstrate at chemical company Chemours for the 200th time

For the 200th time, residents are demonstrating in front of the chemical company Chemours in Dordrecht. According to the organizers, ICU physician Diederik Gommers and several members of parliament will also be taking part in the "anniversary edition" of the action.

The activists show up at Chemours' door every week because they want the company to stop emitting harmful substances. With the help of lawyer Bénédicte Ficq, the residents have already filed criminal charges against Chemours executives. According to the organizers, Ficq also took part in the action on Saturday morning.

The initiator of the demonstration, Kees van der Hel, has been involved since 2016. He brought the campaign to life when he read an appeal by a villager in the newspaper calling for action against Chemour's predecessor DuPont. That was the spark Van der Hel needed, as he was no longer willing to let the decades of emissions and harmful substances the company had been releasing into the environment go by, NOS reported.

The demonstrators spread soil contaminated with PFAS. This is a collective name for chemicals that are used in non-stick coatings on pans, among other things. PFAS is linked to various diseases and disorders, such as cancer. The province of Zuid-Holland imposed a fine on Chemours because the substance trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) was found in wastewater during an inspection. Chemours does not have a permit for this. According to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), TFA also falls under PFAS.