Who said the EU isn't good for anything (me)? Well, if it materialises, the PFAS ban will be due to individual countries teaming up and going through the EU process, not due to the EU itself
"...why not mandate a black box label—which should be done with pharmaceuticals, too—and let both Mr. Market and the ‘sovereign consumer’ decide?"
Because that doesn't adress the issue, and wouldn't work for the very simple reason that chemicals don't care about economic/behavioural theories.
Years ago, ski wax containing PFAS was banned here in Sweden and every year since, samples are taken from the Vasaloppet-course, since it's been in constant use since the 1920s. What is encouraging is that the PFAS disappears from the area quickly, but what is not where it moves to:
Aquifers, ground water, and eventually wells, streams and rivers. It will take generations to be rid of it, and "rid of it" means it will have accumulated in river, lake and ocean beds.
Blanket ban, unless there are products where it simply must be used (health care-tools perhaps?) and marking what few products are allowed would be best, and a good start to banning other cancerous and otherwise dangerous additives too - there's nothing dangerous with a cast iron skillet, except to the bottom line of capitalist profiteers, since a well-made skillet lasts well over a century.
Now, if we could get around to in one scale ban most food additives, and in the other make domestic food production as tax free as possible. . . Might as well dream that Sweden would force foreign lorries and trucks to switch to studded winter tyres when driving here.
Should have added something like '/irony' there, eh?
We know from cigarettes that such black box labels won't discourage people from smoking (yeah, you might get a few to forego smoking, but massive tax hikes, propaganda campaigns ('smoking kills'), and social stigma ('no smoking permitted here') work.
Why not, in a first step, impose massive price hikes of, say, 300-400% or whatever the cost of cleaning up the environment might be on these products? I suppose that the announcement of such a price tag would suffice to discourage most producers from continued usage of PFAS…
Same for 'convenience food' and other additives.
As to the studded tires thing, well, same here--but I think it's a truck driver/tourist/city people thing.
A tax/fee/tariff* will create a black market since the EU has zero border checks and effectively no control at all for what passes over borders or winds up in the stores.
And for a store chain such as H&M, paying a couple of tens of thousands of Euros in fines is less than they spend on Xerox paper per year.
Or Aldi, Fakta, Lidl, Rema, et cetera.
That's what happened with tobacco-taxes here: when they were ramped up in the 1990s, it became economically viable to go to Poland (or order from) and by tobacco over the counter and take it back to Sweden. Customs at Ystad harbour?
Office hours, both agents. Imagine the time for two people to check several hundreds of cars, to say nothing about the passengers, crew and trucks.
That's why a blanket ban works better - it immediately lowers the amount of work need to find violators.
That foreign lorries can drive on threadbare summer tyres is due to EU-regulations and Sweden not insisting on our laws applying equally to all drivers. Consequence: lots of accidents involving southern/eastern European drivers and vehicles. Lack of experience, lack of skill and their culturally typical lackadaisical attitude to common sense-rules.
Course, all of it could be fixed, but there's no will to take the actions needed to actually fix anything - just wishful thinking that "tossing coins in the wishing well" will work, this time.
*Tangent: isn't it just amazing how many American Substack Trump-fans [libertarians esp.] who normally detest taxes now sing hymnals to his glory for suggesting tariffs?
As to the tax/fee/tariff stuff, well, there is a specific issue and a general aspect to this one:
You're correct about the relationship of giants paying pennies on the dollar in fees or fines (or billions, if you're Big Pharma for that matter). There is, however, the specific issue of awareness--why would you use these toxic, bio-accumulating things at home? I mean, there's hardly a household without teflon-coated cookware…
In more general terms, raising awareness about one such previously unquestioned issue raises concerns about other things, too. Just how much 'nudging' would you need to go from, say, questioning the Covid death/poison juices to, say, googling terms like 'Stevia' and 'fertility' (try it, it'll blow you mind) or 'sodium laureth sulfate' and go check your bathroom for shower gels and shampoo? (Try that one, too, and thank me later, that is, if you're still using these toxic sludges to 'wash' yourself.)
As to the tangent: it's funny watching them, right? It's the delusional 'Right™' that will do the next round of demolition; don't worry, the delusional 'Left™' will roar back and drag the system further to their side next time around…
I'm too far out on the Bell curve for that stuff - very much not representative. No teflon. Only iron frying pans and skillets. Metal cook-pots, or glass and ceramic bowls et c for the oven. And so on, you get the idea - old, tried and true stuff that doesn't wear out.
Chalk it up to my upbringing, I guess.
Besides, since capitalist corporations produce best results when you show them the carrot and the stick in advance, bans plus fining the owners/shareholders and not the company would work wonders. 20k Euros for IKEA, even per day, is nothing. 20k Euro for each CO or CEO for each branch and department and for each shareholder, for every violation?
Same as with the transport companies: inform them that from 1/1 202X the following rules applies for drivers and vehicles in Sweden. If a driver/vehicle is found to violate these rules, cargo and vehicle is forfeited and will be sold at auction (may be a good idea to let the former owner have first call for a set price).
Bet you they'd snap to it at once.
By the way, from 1/1 2025 here, we may no longer but old clothes and textiles into the "burnables" containers. No, all such are to be cleaned and handed in at the sorting station. To be "recycled". In reality, to be exported to 3rd world nations, or to be burned in our garbage-powered heating plants.
"...why not mandate a black box label—which should be done with pharmaceuticals, too—and let both Mr. Market and the ‘sovereign consumer’ decide?"
Because that doesn't adress the issue, and wouldn't work for the very simple reason that chemicals don't care about economic/behavioural theories.
Years ago, ski wax containing PFAS was banned here in Sweden and every year since, samples are taken from the Vasaloppet-course, since it's been in constant use since the 1920s. What is encouraging is that the PFAS disappears from the area quickly, but what is not where it moves to:
Aquifers, ground water, and eventually wells, streams and rivers. It will take generations to be rid of it, and "rid of it" means it will have accumulated in river, lake and ocean beds.
Blanket ban, unless there are products where it simply must be used (health care-tools perhaps?) and marking what few products are allowed would be best, and a good start to banning other cancerous and otherwise dangerous additives too - there's nothing dangerous with a cast iron skillet, except to the bottom line of capitalist profiteers, since a well-made skillet lasts well over a century.
Now, if we could get around to in one scale ban most food additives, and in the other make domestic food production as tax free as possible. . . Might as well dream that Sweden would force foreign lorries and trucks to switch to studded winter tyres when driving here.
Should have added something like '/irony' there, eh?
We know from cigarettes that such black box labels won't discourage people from smoking (yeah, you might get a few to forego smoking, but massive tax hikes, propaganda campaigns ('smoking kills'), and social stigma ('no smoking permitted here') work.
Why not, in a first step, impose massive price hikes of, say, 300-400% or whatever the cost of cleaning up the environment might be on these products? I suppose that the announcement of such a price tag would suffice to discourage most producers from continued usage of PFAS…
Same for 'convenience food' and other additives.
As to the studded tires thing, well, same here--but I think it's a truck driver/tourist/city people thing.
A tax/fee/tariff* will create a black market since the EU has zero border checks and effectively no control at all for what passes over borders or winds up in the stores.
And for a store chain such as H&M, paying a couple of tens of thousands of Euros in fines is less than they spend on Xerox paper per year.
Or Aldi, Fakta, Lidl, Rema, et cetera.
That's what happened with tobacco-taxes here: when they were ramped up in the 1990s, it became economically viable to go to Poland (or order from) and by tobacco over the counter and take it back to Sweden. Customs at Ystad harbour?
Office hours, both agents. Imagine the time for two people to check several hundreds of cars, to say nothing about the passengers, crew and trucks.
That's why a blanket ban works better - it immediately lowers the amount of work need to find violators.
That foreign lorries can drive on threadbare summer tyres is due to EU-regulations and Sweden not insisting on our laws applying equally to all drivers. Consequence: lots of accidents involving southern/eastern European drivers and vehicles. Lack of experience, lack of skill and their culturally typical lackadaisical attitude to common sense-rules.
Course, all of it could be fixed, but there's no will to take the actions needed to actually fix anything - just wishful thinking that "tossing coins in the wishing well" will work, this time.
*Tangent: isn't it just amazing how many American Substack Trump-fans [libertarians esp.] who normally detest taxes now sing hymnals to his glory for suggesting tariffs?
As to the tax/fee/tariff stuff, well, there is a specific issue and a general aspect to this one:
You're correct about the relationship of giants paying pennies on the dollar in fees or fines (or billions, if you're Big Pharma for that matter). There is, however, the specific issue of awareness--why would you use these toxic, bio-accumulating things at home? I mean, there's hardly a household without teflon-coated cookware…
In more general terms, raising awareness about one such previously unquestioned issue raises concerns about other things, too. Just how much 'nudging' would you need to go from, say, questioning the Covid death/poison juices to, say, googling terms like 'Stevia' and 'fertility' (try it, it'll blow you mind) or 'sodium laureth sulfate' and go check your bathroom for shower gels and shampoo? (Try that one, too, and thank me later, that is, if you're still using these toxic sludges to 'wash' yourself.)
As to the tangent: it's funny watching them, right? It's the delusional 'Right™' that will do the next round of demolition; don't worry, the delusional 'Left™' will roar back and drag the system further to their side next time around…
I'm too far out on the Bell curve for that stuff - very much not representative. No teflon. Only iron frying pans and skillets. Metal cook-pots, or glass and ceramic bowls et c for the oven. And so on, you get the idea - old, tried and true stuff that doesn't wear out.
Chalk it up to my upbringing, I guess.
Besides, since capitalist corporations produce best results when you show them the carrot and the stick in advance, bans plus fining the owners/shareholders and not the company would work wonders. 20k Euros for IKEA, even per day, is nothing. 20k Euro for each CO or CEO for each branch and department and for each shareholder, for every violation?
Same as with the transport companies: inform them that from 1/1 202X the following rules applies for drivers and vehicles in Sweden. If a driver/vehicle is found to violate these rules, cargo and vehicle is forfeited and will be sold at auction (may be a good idea to let the former owner have first call for a set price).
Bet you they'd snap to it at once.
By the way, from 1/1 2025 here, we may no longer but old clothes and textiles into the "burnables" containers. No, all such are to be cleaned and handed in at the sorting station. To be "recycled". In reality, to be exported to 3rd world nations, or to be burned in our garbage-powered heating plants.
And no, no-one has done a proper EROI on it.
I hear you re all the above points.
As to the btw, well, NRK ran a piece about this (which I only skimmed), and it was, well, 'under-complex'.