In Saint-Louis, in Haut-Rhin, residents terrified by eternal pollutants
THE SCOURGE OF PFAS 2/5. The contamination of drinking water with "eternal pollutants" has led the Haut-Rhin prefecture to ban its consumption by the most vulnerable populations. This unprecedented situation could be repeated elsewhere with the lowering of the threshold under the new European legislation, reports the British daily "The Guardian." Fourth episode of our series dedicated to the dangers of PFAS.
[This article was first published on our site on August 11, 2025 and republished on October 17]
Sandra Wiedemann is comfortably settled on her sofa watching the news. Suddenly, she learns that the water coming out of her tap every day may well have poisoned her. The thirty-year-old, who is breastfeeding her six-month-old baby, Côme, lives in the peaceful town of Buschwiller [Haut-Rhin], in the Saint-Louis urban community, on the outskirts of Basel.
Perched on a hill not far from the Swiss and German borders, the place seems like a dream location for raising a child, with its spacious houses and carefully maintained gardens, nestled in the Jura mountains.
But as more information reaches her, this dream is shattered: her family uses running water every day to drink, brush their teeth, bathe, cook, and rinse their vegetables. She then learns that dangerous pollutants, which she has never heard of, have contaminated her skin and blood, and could well put her son's life in danger. “It's scary,” she says. “Even if we stop drinking it, he will still be exposed to it, and there's nothing we can do.”
The next day, she rushes to
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