A further 750 people living close to a former Dupont factor in Sliedrecht are to undergo blood tests on the cost of the local council to see if they have been overexposed to a cancer-causing chemical.

Local broadcaster RTV Rijmond said officials had agreed to pay for the tests after pressure from council members.

The tests follow the public prosecution department’s decision to investigation the use of potentially dangerous chemicals at two Dupont chemical works near Dordrecht. They follow other probes by the public health institute RIVM and social affairs ministry into claims that the use of chemicals has caused health problems in both staff and locals.

The blood tests involve looking for a chemical known as C8, or perfluorooctanoic acid, which is classed as ‘potentially carcenogenic’ to humans by the World Health Organisation.

In its initial report last year, the RIVM said locals were exposed to higher than legal amounts of the compound via the atmosphere from 1970 to 2002 but not via drinking water. ‘In the worst case scenario, the norm was broken for 25 years,’ the RIVM is quoted as saying.

In 2002 emissions from the plant fell to below agreed norms and in 2012, C8 was replaced in Telfon production by another less harmful chemical. The factory is now known as Chemours.