[ In a letter to Chemours, the experts said they were worried
about the companys "apparent disregard for the well-being of community
members, who have been denied access to clean and safe water for
decades."]
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UN EXPERTS ALLEGE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS BY PFAS CHEMICAL GIANT IN
NORTH CAROLINA  
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Olivia Rosane
November 28, 2023
Common Dreams [[link removed]]


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_ In a letter to Chemours, the experts said they were worried about
the company's "apparent disregard for the well-being of community
members, who have been denied access to clean and safe water for
decades." _

The headquarters of Chemours Company is seen on October 11, 2021. ,
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

 

United Nations human rights experts have expressed concerns over
"alleged human rights violations and abuses" against people living
along the lower Cape Fear River in North Carolina due emissions of
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS
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plant.

Five U.N. experts signed
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letters to Chemours—the plant's current operator—as well as
DuPont, Corteva, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and
Dutch environmental regulators. The action marks the U.N. Human Rights
Council's first investigation into an environmental problem in the
U.S., _The Guardian_reported
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Tuesday.

"We are especially concerned about DuPont and Chemours' apparent
disregard for the well-being of community members, who have been
denied access to clean and safe water for decades," the U.N. experts
wrote in the letter to Chemours.

"We hope the U.N.'s action will induce shareholders to bring DuPont
and Chemours in line with international human rights law."

The Fayetteville Works manufacturing plant has been releasing toxic
PFAS into the environment for more than four decades, according to the
allegations detailed in the letter. PFAS dumped in the Cape Fear River
have made it unsafe to drink for 100 river miles, and pollution from
the plant has contaminated air, soil, groundwater, and aquatic life.

PFAS are a class of chemicals used in a variety of products from
nonstick, water-repellent, or stain-resistant items to firefighting
foam. They have been linked to a number of health issues including
cancers and have earned the name "forever chemicals
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ability to persist in the environment and the human body. One study
found
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PFAS in 97% of local residents who received testing.

The letter also repeated allegations that DuPont, the plant's previous
owner, and Chemours, a spinoff company, had not taken responsibility
for cleaning up the local environment and compensating community
members, and that DuPont had known about the dangers of PFAS for
several years, but chose to hide this information from the public.

"We remain preoccupied that these actions infringe on community
members' right to life, right to health, right to a healthy, clean,
and sustainable environment, and the right to clean water, among
others," the U.N. experts wrote.

The letters were sent
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in response to a request made in April
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by Berkeley Law's Environmental Law Clinic on behalf of local
environmental advocacy group Clean Cape Fear. In the request, the
groups said the matter was particularly urgent because Chemours plans
to expand its making of PFAS at the plant.

The U.N. experts, or special rapporteurs, reviewed existing legal and
scientific documents and media reports, rather than completing their
own investigation, _NC Newsline _reported
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They sent the letters in September, but made them public on
Thanksgiving, 60 days later, according
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Cape Fear. During that time, Chemours, Corteva, and the Dutch
regulator responded, but DuPont and the EPA did not.

"We are grateful to see the United Nations take action on behalf of
all residents in our region suffering from decades of human rights
abuse related to our PFAS contamination crisis," Clean Cape Fear
co-founder Emily Donovan said in a statement. "Clearly, the U.N.
recognizes international law is being violated in the United States.
We find it profoundly troubling that the United States and DuPont have
yet to respond to the U.N.'s allegation letters."

Clean Cape Fear called Chemours' response "classic corporate
gaslighting." Chemours claimed to be "a relatively new company,"
despite being staffed by senior DuPont executives, focused mainly on
the PFAS GenX despite the presence of several other pollutants, and
focused on the impacts on private well owners, ignoring public utility
customers who must pay to filter their own water because of PFAS
contamination. However, the letter did acknowledge that Chemours knew
about the PFAS pollution before the public learned of it in 2017 and
tried to both resolve it internally and prevent the public from
finding out.

"If corporate malfeasance had a name in N.C., it would be Chemours,"
said Rebecca Trammel, leadership team member of Clean Cape Fear and
founder of Catalyst Consulting & Speaking. "Impunity is the accomplice
of injustice. It is the obligation of governments and regulatory
agencies to ensure that innovation, economic gain, and progress are in
service of humanity, not at its expense. I extend my deepest thanks to
the United Nations for its defense of our right to safe water and life
itself."

The letter to the EPA focused in part on its failure to study the
health impacts of PFAS exposure on the community, while the letter to
the Netherlands focused on imports of GenX from that country to
Fayetteville Works.

Clean Cape Fear said it hopes the letters will put pressure on both
the private companies and the government regulators to act.

"We hope the U.N.'s action will induce shareholders to bring DuPont
and Chemours in line with international human rights law," the group
tweeted
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that both companies are publicly traded.

"We also hope that the risk of being named a violator of international
human rights laws will give the U.S. EPA the political courage to do
what it must to curb toxic PFAS pollution in North Carolina and
nationwide," the group added
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Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel
free to republish and share widely.
===
Olivia Rosane [[link removed]]
Olivia Rosane is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
 

* Chemours; Chemical Industry; Pollution; United Nations;
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