The manufacturer of cables and wires Coroflex, a business unit of the Coroplast Group, is pleased with the statement of the city of Wuppertal. During a press conference on Thursday, March 11, 2021, the city had announced an almost complete lifting of the precautionary non-consumption recommendation from last year. "This is a good news for all residents in Nächstebreck, Wuppertal and our employees on site," said Dominik Grauel, Coroplast Group press spokesman.
"As planned, Coroflex completely converted to PCB-free silicone processing at the Nächstebreck site at the beginning of 2021. Since then, we can rely on a sustainable zero emission of silicone-typical PCBs from our site," the spokesperson continues.
The conversion was due to findings of PCBs in Nächstebreck in June 2020, which were partly attributable to the processing of silicone. As a result, the city of Wuppertal had recommended that certain leafy vegetables in the immediate vicinity of the company should not be consumed, as a precaution.
Kale from 2020 investigated
The city of Wuppertal bases its findings on the results of a report by the North Rhine-Westphalia State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV), which examined kale from the late summer and fall of 2020. The city credits the almost complete removal of the consumption recommendation to the successful conversion of the production process by Coroflex.
Additional PCB sources
As the statement from the city of Wuppertal indicates, there are also other sources of PCB emissions in Nächstebreck that are not related to silicone production by Coroflex. In fact, these outweigh the amount of PCBs from silicone production and account for the majority of the measured values. "Wherever we can, we will continue to support the city of Wuppertal in researching the background," says Dominik Grauel.
Background
As announced in the summer of 2020, the Wuppertal-based manufacturer of cables and wires Coroflex, a business unit of the Coroplast Group, has switched completely to PCB-free silicone processing as of 01.01.2021. This was due to conspicuous results in the analysis of dandelion leaves in the vicinity of the company site. The city of Wuppertal had then issued a recommendation that certain leafy vegetables harvested in the immediate vicinity of the company should not be consumed as a precaution.