The 3M plant in Belgium that produces PFA based coolant has shut down production for a while because of pollution. 3M lied to the government and when the government found out, they lied to the people. When that came out, there was no way to continue covering up.
Unfortunately, it seems the plant in Zwijndrecht, produced 80% of the worldwide supply of coolant. 3M has some other plants and hopes to reopen production in Belgium soon. Unfortunately, several other sites polluted by PFAs have shown up. Not due to pollution from 3M's manufacturing, but from more mundane activities like fire brigade exercises.
https://www.eetimes.com/3m-cuts-output-of-hazardous-material-used-in-chip-production/
Maybe there's some over-reaction going on, but when I see that the US army decided to burn millions of gallons of fire-fighting PFAs, I'm not so sure.
These PFA molecules cannot be destroyed, so they are an everlasting environmental problem, just like some of the other 40000 man-made molecules out there. And the sales argument that they weren't bad for human health has been destroyed by science as they are the main reason for declining fertility in the west. If that's a bad thing, remains to be seen...
Unfortunately, it seems the plant in Zwijndrecht, produced 80% of the worldwide supply of coolant. 3M has some other plants and hopes to reopen production in Belgium soon. Unfortunately, several other sites polluted by PFAs have shown up. Not due to pollution from 3M's manufacturing, but from more mundane activities like fire brigade exercises.
https://www.eetimes.com/3m-cuts-output-of-hazardous-material-used-in-chip-production/
Maybe there's some over-reaction going on, but when I see that the US army decided to burn millions of gallons of fire-fighting PFAs, I'm not so sure.
These PFA molecules cannot be destroyed, so they are an everlasting environmental problem, just like some of the other 40000 man-made molecules out there. And the sales argument that they weren't bad for human health has been destroyed by science as they are the main reason for declining fertility in the west. If that's a bad thing, remains to be seen...
