Dova drum sounds over Svista industrial area. On a Wednesday evening in October, about 500 Eskilstunabor gathered, some with gas masks, many with placards. The cries skulls outside Senior Materials Fired factory:
– 900 tons we say no! No one will poison you and me!
– We don’t want married and snuff – Senior’s condition is just cheating!
The essence of the conflict Is methylene chloride, or DCM, a solvent used to wash away paraffin oil from the thin plastic film that is a key component in electric car batteries.
DCM is suspected of carcinogenic and has been linked to serious nerve damage, such as Parkinson’s. The subject has been banned in Sweden since 1996.
The production is not yet underway, but in a name collection with over 100,000 signatures against Senior Material’s emissions, the plant is called the “Gift Factory”. Senior material has a different view:
– Batteries are a key in the green transition, and without separator film there will be no batteries. What we do in Eskilstuna is therefore an important puzzle piece in electrification, says Cecilia Vallin, PR manager for senior material.
– Sweden is a country with clear legislation and high environmental requirements, which is fully in line with our own ambitions, she adds.
Today, senior materials have permission from the county administrative board to release up to 900 tonnes per year of the prohibited substance. At the same time, the company recently applied to change its environmental permit so that the maximum emissions are lowered to 300 tonnes annually, states the company for DN.
This can be compared to the fact that the total use of methylene chloride in Sweden for a ten-year period in the 2010s was 100-190 tonnes, according to the Swedish Chemicals Agency.
August 30 2021 Held senior material a consultation meeting for local residents. Only 12 people came.
Monica Gustafsson, who lives 300 meters from the factory, says that they got to see a sketch without chimneys.
– I work as a behavioral scientist, but was still deceived by the fine language at the consultation meeting. They said it was a “closed system,” she says.
Håkan Lundell, whose horse farm is just 600 meters from the scene, is concerned that the gas will reach his land:
– Methylene chloride is heavier than air. How, then, can it spread in the air only? It will sink down.
His concern has certainly Support in a review of the newspaper Dagens Work, which has published a number of articles about the factory. In its environmental impact assessment for senior material – a model calculation that underlies the environmental permit – IVL Swedish Environmental Institute did not count on the so -called downwash-the effect.
IVL defends the method, but the expert authority SMHI has questioned the approach and believes that the concentration of DCM can in reality be greater, especially near the factory.
Several local companies In Eskilstuna, the factory opposes and has recently appealed against a dispensation decision from the Swedish Chemicals Agency. They have also published documents which they believe show that the permissible amount of emission in Sweden is many times higher than in comparable plants in Poland and Hungary.
– It’s about money. Since Swedish authorities have not set stricter emission requirements, the company has chosen the simplest and cheapest purification technology for its factory in Sweden, says Lennart Bogg, retired professor of public health science.
Lennart Bogg has engaged on the question and went through what the research says about the effects of methylene chloride on health. He believes that long -term exposure, even for low levels, is dangerous to humans. This shows a number of studies, according to Lennart Bogg.
– And so much emissions planned in Eskilstuna have no one studied. No emissions in Europe is even close to this, he says.
At the same time, Gunnar Johansson, professor of environmental medicine at KI, points out that it is difficult to draw safe conclusions from the studies that have been made so far. He sees great risks inside the factory, but fades down the risk of Eskilstuna’s residents.
– Should it be a real cancer risk for the surrounding residents, you should have seen it in workers who are exposed to high levels for a long time, and you have not been able to show that, he says.
Senior materials have ended up Under strong pressure for its choice of technology in Sweden. The criticism has led the officials in Eskilstuna municipality to act.
The Environmental Protection Unit David Aronsson has clearly signaled that they do not accept the original state level. Through the Community Building Board – which previously granted building permits for the facility – it has been applied for a review in court.
David Aronsson now, with support in the principle of the best possible technology – wants a requirement in the Environmental Code for emissions to be minimized – see a drastic reduction to final conditions of a maximum of 10-20 tonnes per year.
– We think that for a facility like this, the best possible technology is that there are no untreated emissions and that processes are closed. This is how solvents are normally handled in process factories, says David Aronsson.
But senior materials have Another view of the possibilities of technology. Although the Social Building Board now requires a reduction with reference to the best possible technology, the company claims that the goal is difficult to reach.
– The long -term goal is to completely phase out DCM, even though the technology is missing at present, says Cecilia Vallin.
Can you guarantee that the local residents are not exposed to hazardous emissions?
– We can guarantee that we comply with all laws and regulations and the authorities’ requirements on us.
In the farm Grönsta, a few hundred meters from senior materials, Cilla Pettersson questions the entire premise of the green change that the factory says they represent:
– Most often, other countries are allowed to suck for us to drive an electric car. Now we have to pay. Real green change is on foot, for a bicycle or on horseback. Or possibly by train.
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