The contribution provides an overview of the Farmer Case (Falys v. Total) in Belgium, for which no judgment on the merits had yet been rendered at the time of writing. This first lawsuit against a major oil company on grounds related to liability and the Belgian civil code offers an opportunity to highlight the broader context in which such litigation arises, both with regard to developments under Belgian law and to insights that may be drawn from recent judgments in Germany and Italy, particularly on issues such as distance, neighborhood, fair share, and the global climate challenge.
Marine oil spill management requires rapid and accurate forecasts to mitigate environmental and operational risks. Created in 2002 during the Prestige spill and formally established in 2006, the French Drift Committee (CODER) unites expertise from CEDRE, Météo-France, Ifremer and Shom to refine oil drift modeling and response strategies. CODER’s operational scope combines multi-model forecasting, including MOTHY and OILMAP, integrated with real-time observations from drifting buoys, satellite/aerial observations and high-resolution environmental data, such as Copernicus Marine Environment Monitoring Service (CMEMS) current forecasts and Météo-France’s ARPEGE and AROME wind models. Annual exercises, such as RAMOGEPOL 2025, provide a controlled environment to test model performance in diverse hydrodynamic conditions and recalibrate simulations using real-time buoy data. During this exercise, the French Navy’s Anti-Pollution Practical Expertise Center (CEPPOL) deployed buoys in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Saint-Tropez, France, in both the Northern Current and wind-driven coastal waters, enabling CODER to assess model performance and refine simulations by comparing buoy trajectories with model outputs. This process enhances the accuracy of drift predictions, improves the understanding of local hydrodynamics, and identifies models’ strengths and limitations. By systematically evaluating and adjusting models using operational data, CODER strengthens the reliability of drift forecasts, ensuring more effective and adaptive responses to marine pollution incidents.
Plastic products contain complex mixtures of chemical compounds that are incorporated into polymers to improve material properties. Besides the intentional chemical additives, other compounds including residual monomers and non-intentionnaly added substances (NIAS) as well as sorbed pollutants are usually also present in aged plastic. Since most of these substances are only loosely bound to the polymer via non-covalently interactions, i.e., van der Waals forces, they may leach to the surrounding environment. Although there is increasing knowledge about toxicity of weathered plastic to aquatic organisms, only little is known about how plastic associated chemicals affect human health. Seafood consumption is one of the routes of human exposure to microplastics. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of naturally aged plastic associated chemicals to induce harmful effects to human health via the consumption of MP-contaminated seafood. Human colorectal adenocarcinoma Caco-2 and human hepatocyte carcinoma HepG2 cells were selected as model of the colon and liver cells respectively. They are known for their high capacity to metabolize organic contaminants. Both cell lines were exposed to DMSO extracts of different plastics to investigate the effects of chemicals on cell viability, oxidative stress induction and genotoxicity. In addition, the estrogenic effects of DMSO-extracts were evaluated using an estrogen-dependent reporter gene assay in T47D-Kbluc human breast cancer cells. Chemical profiles of the DMSO extracts were polymer-dependent, with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) highly contaminated with metals while polypropylene (PP) contained the lowest concentration of metals. Organic pollutants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, were mainly found in PVC, high density polyethylene (HDPE) and PP extracts, whereas other extracted plastics had less (PP) to no organic contamination (polyethylene terephthalate PET). PVC was the most toxic plastic inducing cytotoxicity for both cell lines. DNA damage was observed for Caco-2 cells exposure to HDPE, PVC and nylon. Reactive oxygen species were induced only with nylon extracts in intestinal cells. No toxicity was observed for PP and PET and none of the tested plastics had any estrogenic effect. Our results demonstrate that some environmental aged plastic material released a variety of known and unknown chemical compounds some of which are toxic in vitro and contribute to the knowledge on adverse human health effects of plastics.
In the context of the deployment of offshore wind farms in France, the potential impact of Galvanic Anode Cathodic Protections (GACP) was highlighted as an environmental concern due to the chronic release of metallic elements (mainly aluminium (Al) and zinc (Zn)). Therefore, it is essential to assess both the behaviour and fate of these metallic elements and their potential biological impacts. Hence, a chronic toxicity study was performed on the decapod Palaemon elegans by exposing early life stages (embryo and zoea larvae) to Al-GACP elements (mainly composed of a mix of Al (≃95
The originality of this research lies in the use of fish lipid markers, which highlights the importance of fatty acid profiles as biomarkers to evaluate the health status of estuarine systems subject to eutrophication or multistress. In the present paper, we developed an approach combining lipid class and fatty acid analyses on juvenile European flounder muscle, watershed geographic metrics and pollutant levels in sediments, to assess the ecological status of seven small estuaries mainly impacted by agricultural activities in the watersheds. The estuaries showed contrasted fatty acids compositions in flounder muscle. Marked differences in polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) proportions, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), reflected not only the state of cell membranes but also variations in the quality of food sources. High levels of PUFA were associated with better ecological conditions, while reduced PUFA availability was clearly linked to eutrophication and multistress. In addition, higher flounder lipid reserve content was clearly identified in the system highly impacted by fish farming, reflecting a contamination of the entire trophic chain by aquaculture waste.
