Dutch government has no insight into locals' exposure to chemicals: Health Council

Netherlands residents’ exposure to chemical substances isn’t measured, but estimated, the Dutch Health Council said on Thursday. “As a result, the government has insufficient insight into the exposure and lacks the data necessary to monitor and improve policy,” the Health Council said.

The Dutch government does test the air, water, and consumer products for chemical substances, but that doesn’t monitor to what extent chemicals actually enter people’s bodies. That can only be determined by biomonitoring - regular blood and urine tests. “However, biomonitoring in the Netherlands only happens occasionally, usually in response to social unrest.”

There has been plenty of social unrest regarding chemical substances in the Netherlands in recent years, with reports of Tata Steel leaking carcinogenic substances in IJmuiden for decades, Chemours contaminating Dordrecht vegetable gardens with PFAS, Schiphol leaking PFOS into the water in the Amsterdam region, and lobsters dying en masse in the Oosterschelde for no apparent reason, though locals speculate that steel slag from Tata Steel is behind it. The Dutch Nutrition Center recently warned people throughout the Netherlands not to eat eggs laid by their own chickens because of PFAS contamination.

The Health Council recommended that the government set up a biomonitoring program that regularly and repeatedly tests blood and urine samples from a representative group of participants. This will allow the government to monitor total exposure from different sources while also identifying risk groups.

On Monday, the Dutch Safety Board (OVV) ordered industrial companies like Tata Steel and Chemours to be more ambitious in protecting locals from exposure to their harmful substances. “They know well what emissions they cause, but are not always aware of the effect of these emissions on local residents,” the OVV said after a follow-up study into what governments and industrial companies have done to protect and inform locals in the past year.

The OVV concluded that a change of thinking has started in the industry. “Industry and governments have taken many steps and made plans based on the OVV’s research. That is wonderful,” OVV chairman Chris van Dam said. But more is needed. Many locals living near industrial companies still feel ignored and unsafe. “They must make it their continued priority to protect the health of local residents.”

On Wednesday, multiple interest groups filed a lawsuit against the Dutch State for not protecting locals and the environment enough against the harmful consequences of PFAS contamination. “The interest groups have united to call the State to account for its gross failure to fulfill its duty of care to protect Dutch citizens, animals, and the environment against the harmful effects of PFAS pollution,” said the lawyers Geert-Jan en Carry Knoops, representing the interest groups.

The case is the first class action in the field of PFAS contamination holding the Dutch government accountable, ANP reported. It will appear in the court in The Hague in August.

PFAS is a collective term for thousands of chemicals typically used in nonstick pans and water-repelling clothing. Some of these substances are carcinogenic and can damage the immune system. They hardly degrade, and it is extremely difficult to clean them out of contaminated soil.