“In 2014, my world changed forever when I learned my family was exposed to contaminated drinking water containing high levels of PFAS. Since then, I haven’t stopped worrying about my family’s health,” says Andrea Amico, a New Hampshire resident and PFAS community advocate turned national activist. Read more…
Companies in Maine that sell toys and other products for children made with five “forever chemicals” must notify the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, according to a rule unanimously approved July 2. The rule designates perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and four closely related substances as priority chemicals. Read more…
Firefighters face dangers beyond the blaze itself. Their work subjects them to carcinogens from burning materials, as well as toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from flame-suppressing foams. A new study finds that firefighters can also be exposed to PFAS over time through another source: their protective clothing (Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00410). Read more…
The haunting folk song refrain, “When will we ever learn?” could apply well to the reckless manufacture of a class of harmful chemicals called perfluoroalky and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS). These chemicals are useful in firefighting foam, water- and stain-proof textiles and many industrial applications. However, they are also known as “forever chemicals” because they never break down in the environment. Read more…
U.S. Jeanne Shaheen is asking if COVID-19 poses “any unique risks” to people who have previously been exposed to PFAS chemicals.
The former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth and Newington is one of a long list of military installations in the United States that have been contaminated by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS, sometimes referred to as forever chemicals. Read more…
New Hampshire lawmakers are seeking new assistance for plaintiffs in toxic chemical lawsuits, pushing a bill that would help force companies to pay for medical tests for those who have ingested toxins. A late amendment to a Senate bill this week would create a new statutory scheme for “medical monitoring” – a type of relief in which negligent companies must pay for the tests of those who have been exposed to harmful substances. Read more…
ALMOST SIX MONTHS into the coronavirus pandemic, it’s already clear that environmental pollution is responsible for some portion of the hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths around the world. Now scientists are trying to pinpoint how exactly industrial chemicals make people more susceptible to the coronavirus and how much of the blame for the devastation wrought by the new coronavirus should be laid at the feet of the industry that produces those chemicals. Read more…
Federal regulators are crafting an exemption for polluters releasing harmful perfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) into the environment in a way that environmental advocates say circumvents a new law meant to address widespread contamination. Read more…
When Joe Ritchie was a kid growing up near an upstate New York incinerator, it wasn’t unusual to find black soot on windowsills around the house. But in the last few years, there’s been a new odor in the neighborhood, that smells as if someone has been dumping household chemicals in a tub and lighting them on fire. Read more…
In the summer of 2017, North Carolinians living along the Cape Fear river learned that there was something to fear in their river. Headlines splashed across the front page of the Wilmington Star News announcing the discovery of high levels of a little-known toxic chemical contaminating their drinking water. Read more…
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