Gynecologist from Gospić Rejects Plenković's Claims: 'We Are Concerned, Not Hysterical'
Dr. Mirjana Vrkljan Radošević told Dnevnik Nove TV that she sent samples to Berlin back in March 2025, where PFAS and heavy metals were found in solid waste.
Dr. Mirjana Vrkljan Radošević told Dnevnik Nove TV that she sent samples to Berlin back in March 2025, where PFAS and heavy metals were found in solid waste.
Dr. Mirjana Vrkljan Radošević, a gynecologist from Gospić, has sharply rejected Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's statement that part of the opposition is creating hysteria over the illegal waste case in Lika. Speaking to Dnevnik Nove TV, she said that the citizens of Gospić and the entire Lika region are merely concerned for their health, and that there is no hysteria.
"I think it's shameful that the Prime Minister treats the citizens of Gospić and the entire Lika region this way. We are not hysterical; we are simply concerned for our health because anyone who has read about the consequences of PFAS and heavy metals on the health of citizens, as well as on nature in general, would naturally be concerned," said Dr. Vrkljan Radošević, former president of the City Council and a member of the party Pravedna Hrvatska.
She added that if there truly were hysteria, citizens would have protested long ago. "There is no hysteria here, because if there were, we would have been at Marko Square long ago and sped up all of this," she stated.
A similar stance was taken by SDP's Jure Zubčić and Silvana Čeko Jurišić from the Možemo party, who on Thursday from Benkovac said that citizens and the opposition are not being hysterical. "We have a big and serious problem in this country; no one is being hysterical, but citizens are rightly concerned about their environment and health risks," said Zubčić, adding that the claim of hysteria is an insult to all citizens.
Zubčić attributed responsibility for the entire situation to Prime Minister Plenković, noting that waste problems are not only occurring in Gospić but also in Benkovac, Varaždin, Kistanje, Lovinac, and Štikada. "This is Plenković's garbage because for months he has failed to appoint a chief state inspector, and the one he did appoint, who was dismissed by USKOK, was more concerned with filling his own pockets than with the fact that quarries and various karst holes leading to groundwater are being filled with waste," he asserted.
The doctor revealed that as early as March 2025, in cooperation with German environmental activists, she personally took samples and sent them for analysis to Berlin. She took a sample of solid material, specifically sand, from the entrance gate of a location linked to illegal waste.
"On March 10, 2025, I took a sample of that material, that sand, from the entrance gate for analysis. I also took water from Senj, Karlobag, Udbina, and from a well at a depth of 60 meters. I sent it to Berlin in special bottles they had provided. I received the analysis showing that PFAS and heavy metals are present in that solid waste. The water was clean at the time, with no indications of PFAS or anything else inside," explained Dr. Vrkljan Radošević.
Due to the affair that has resonated throughout Croatia, concerned patients have been contacting the doctor daily in recent days. As she says, citizens have lost trust in state institutions and now want to test the water themselves, even on the islands.
"They are asking me for the address of the laboratory I sent my samples to because they now want to test on the islands and at the very site themselves, as they have unfortunately lost trust in state institutions," said Dr. Vrkljan Radošević.
Jure Zubčić expressed similar distrust in institutions, announcing that SDP and Možemo will engage experts and independent laboratories to analyze the soil in Benkovac because, as he said, "they do not trust the institutions." He also recalled the long-standing problems with illegal dumps in Šepurine and Crno Brdo in Biljane Donje, where waste has been proven to be carcinogenic. "In the village of Biljane Donje, there is almost no house where someone has not died of a malignant disease. And remediation has only just begun," Zubčić warned.
Although there is no official statistics linking illegal waste to health problems among the local population, the doctor warns that a worrying trend is being observed on the ground. "Scientific statistical data do not exist, but on the ground we see that patients with cancers are appearing frequently, younger people that we didn't encounter ten years ago. We cannot directly say it's linked to this, but it raises suspicion," she said.
She herself is cautious when it comes to tap water. Although she sometimes drinks water from the municipal supply, at home she uses a water purifier and mostly avoids drinking tap water.
The company Ličke vode has announced extraordinary water testing in the area, while official results from the Croatian Institute of Public Health are expected on Wednesday.
