In a telephone interview in 2019, the then F 17 chief Tommy Petersson was asked about exercises with PFAS-containing firefighting foam and replied repeatedly that current rules and instructions had been followed.
When the interview was over, the phone was not hung up, and a conversation with a colleague afterwards was recorded by the radio. It appears that he pretended to misunderstand the reporter's question during the interview. To the colleague, he says:
They do test shots every morning with the cannon. Just such a short burst. But it was no "exercise", I think, so therefore we can stand by what I said. Because it was test shots.
Petersson regrets afterwards how he expressed himself, but tells the radio that he maintains that all rules and instructions have been followed by F 17.
That the drinking water in Kallinge had high levels of PFAS was discovered in 2013. The pollution came from firefighting foam used in fire exercises at F 17.
In 2023, the Supreme Court announced that it can be considered a personal injury to have high levels of PFAS in the blood and that it should therefore be possible to seek damages if the cause is contaminated drinking water. It is not yet established how large the damages will be.
