Hydrogen’s toxic secret worries a town in northern France
Green hydrogen is central to Europe’s energy transition, but it relies on potentially dangerous “forever chemicals.”
This summer, residents of the northern French town of Villers-Saint-Paul received a disturbing warning: Don't eat your chickens' eggs.
Tests had revealed that local eggs contained a cocktail of potentially dangerous PFAS, or "forever chemicals," a group of man-made substances that do not break down and can cause serious health problems including cancer, liver damage and fertility issues.
How did these toxic chemicals get into the eggs? The answer was not entirely clear, but suspicion fell on a nearby factory run by U.S. chemicals giant Chemours, which produces PFAS.
Maintaining locals' trust was especially important to the company at the time as it was planning a €186 million expansion to start producing PFAS chemicals vital in manufacturing green hydrogen — a carbon-free fuel that is central to Europe's decarbonization plans and the global fight against climate change. If these potentially dangerous chemicals were polluting local food, it could put hydrogen's social licence in jeopardy.
"When we heard there were going to be huge investments [in the local factory] ... Everyone though that the project was very good news," the town's Deputy Mayor Alexandre Ouizille said in an interview, pointing to job creation and the benefit to the climate.
