The chemical group Daikin announced Thursday its intention to appeal the court’s suspension of the operation of a new production unit on its site south of Lyon suspected of pollution by PFAS, eternal pollutants.
Last week, the Lyon judicial court suspended the prefectural decree authorizing the expansion of the Daikin company, south of Lyon, after the interim relief filed by the “Bien Vivre à Pierre Bénite” collective. The industrialist must therefore suspend part of its activities and shut down its new production unit in its Oullins-Pierre-Bénite factory.
Read also : Justice suspends the prefectural decree authorizing the extension of the Daikin factory
This Thursday, the chemical group, suspected of PFAS pollution, announced its intention to appeal this decision. Daikin Chemical Francewill appeal this decision and, at the same time, provide the prefectural authority with the technical details necessary to enable its pre-compound activity to be restored under the best possible conditions.“, indicated its president Gaël Marseille in a press release sent to AFP.
A unit in service for several months
“The full consequences of this suspension are still being studied.“, he added, specifying that the staff representative bodies had been informed by management.
The town hall of Oullins-Pierre-Bénite had issued the building permit for this extension in 2021, before the extent of the PFAS contamination of the area was revealed by several journalistic investigations from 2022. The work on the site of Daikin had been launched in 2022 and the unit has been operating for a few months.
Les PFAS ?
“PFAS” (family made up of more than 4,700 synthetic molecules) have been produced by humans since the 1940s. Their physicochemical properties (resistant to intense heat or acids, water and fats, etc.) explain their presence in a large number of everyday consumer products and industrial applications.
The fact that they are very widely used (textiles, food packaging, cosmetics, non-stick pans, fire-fighting foams, waterproofing, parquet waxes, varnishes and paints, etc.), in addition to their low degradation, makes these substances omnipresent in the environment, particularly in waterways. We speak of “eternal pollutants” because they can remain in the environment for decades, even centuries. The Rhône, from downstream of Lyon to the Mediterranean, is particularly affected.
According to existing scientific literature, perfluorinated compounds promote cancers in humans and immune defense defects in children.
For several months, legal actions have been increasing against Daikin and its neighbor, the chemical group Arkema, which owns a large factory in the town of Pierre-Bénite. The metropolis of Lyon thus asked the courts at the end of May to order an independent expertise to establish their responsibility in PFAS pollution. The decision is expected to be rendered on July 30.
Read also: Extension of Daikin to the south of Lyon: no “discharge of PFAS into water” assures the Rhône prefecture
The “Bien Vivre à Pierre-Bénite” collective has, for its part, initiated a second procedure: a substantive request to have the prefectural decree authorizing the extension of the Daikin factory annulled. The decision must be made in 18 months.
Read also: PFAS: groups seize the administrative court against the extension of Daikin
