So far Kallinge Borna been organized in the form of a Facebook group with close to 1 200 members. On Thursday formed a formal association under the name PFAS Association.
PFAS stands for poly- and perfluorinated alkylsubstanser and is a large group of substances some of which have been used in fire fighting foams (see box).
Since the autumn, the group had a dialogue with the law firm Carat to investigate possibility to set the Armed Forces and Fortifikationsverket to account for emissions.
– We do not think it’s okay that we, our children and families have been poisoned by chemicals without anyone held to account. Damages or not, you have to get to the bottom of this. It’s about toxins that we and our children are most likely to have left in your body rest of our lives, says Herman Heavens, the initiator of the association.
He is particularly concerned about how his children are affected by toxins from fire foam.
– It feels terrible to they have ingested it here. I myself am very anxious to give them organic food, trying to make conscious choices and my kids can not drink soda or juice. It is the water we drink and the one expects is the best choice. And it is the water they have been poisoned by, it’s pitiful. It hurts in your heart, he says.
Herman Heavens son is 13 years and one of those who suffered from narcolepsy after vaccination against swine flu a few years ago. Therefore outraged Herman Heavens by the news from Occupational and Environmental Medicine to Kallinge residents do not need to be concerned because the diseases that toxins can cause is so unusual.
– Even if only one person or ten who become ill in Kallinge it is bad enough for them, he said.
Herman Heavens think that the whole event is prohibitive.
– That someone can poison an entire community, it’s crazy. I can get fined if I wash my car in my driveway, but the defense can spray out the fire foam for 30 years without anyone raising an eyebrow, he said.
In addition to setting the Armed Forces accountable want PFAS association also work to ensure that more research is done on the substances.
– The main issue for us is the health aspect. It is about ensuring that our children become toxic. Can you clean them from this, in order to secure their future, and how do we ensure that they get relevant help if they get diseases, asks Herman Heavens.
Enligt Goran Starkebo, PFAS association’s lawyer, are the two main issues facing a lawsuit if the poisoning constitutes a compensable injury and who in that case responsible for it.
- And where the poison came from has now been established. It’s F17 in Kallinge and the fire drill site that is there, then have the poison spread to the municipal water supply, he said.
But the question of poisoning constitutes a compensable injury is trickier, as Goran Starkebo.
– There is not the same case tried legally in Sweden before, but it are some cases it may refer to, asbestos cases, arsenic poisoning and a number of HIV judgments. I expect success on the requirement. It would be absurd if he would be allowed to poison people with high levels of a substance that leads to increased risk of disease and then get away with it, he said.
On the other hand, it was not illegal to use the foam?
– No, but it’s totally irrelevant to what they knew and had the knowledge. We need not prove any negligence. The property owner and the operator has spread subjects and has a strict liability for it, it follows from the Environmental Code, says Göran Starkebo.
PFAS association lawyers will shortly write to the Armed Forces and National Fortifications and clarify their requirements.
– We will start by requesting that they take responsibility for that there are those who stand for the spill and that it involves a compensable injury, says Göran Starkebo.
Folke Borgh, Head of the Armed Forces environmental assessment unit, do not answer the question if he believes that the pollution constitutes a compensable injury.
– Such a question would not come on the idea that the answer in this situation. This is a question of law, and we process not in the media, he said.
Before the summer counts PFAS association’s lawyers to have decided whether to file a lawsuit against the Armed Forces and Fortifikationsverket.
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