'Alarming' toxic dust levels near car recycling in Wallonia

'Alarming' toxic dust levels near car recycling in Wallonia
© Belga

Car recycling produces alarming PCB rates in the vicinity of working crushers in Wallonia, it emerged from a report made by the Liège University Hospital Toxicology Department that was consulted by Le Soir.

Local residents claim they have not been kept informed.

Toxicologists in Liège analysed various measurements from the atmospheric fallout around the crushers and from samples taken from the gas-and-dust washing sludge. Among the many identified pollutants are found several PCB variants, all dangerously toxic to varying degrees. "The main way of being exposed to these substances is the ingestion of contaminated dust," the report reads.

"There can be no doubt" that the identified chemical products "contaminate the whole worksite and are being found in the atmospheric fallout found in the near environment," the report's authors claim.

The matter is being taken extremely seriously by environment minister Céline Tellier's office (Ecolo). "The very day when this report was communicated to the cabinet, the minister demanded that all her administration's services concerned prepare a complete analysis of the problem by bringing in the scientific and legal aspects," it is explained. The fresh assessment should be on the minister's desk in the next few days.

The Brussels Times


Copyright © 2024 The Brussels Times. All Rights Reserved.