Shared Humanity, longwalks1 - Back in 80-90's I worked as an environmental and forensic toxicologist and we investigated the human exposure from PFOA by Dupont's Teflon manufacture. I can tell you without reservation, that if your reading this, you have measurable levels of PFOA and PFAS in your bloodstream.
Here is some background on Perfluoroalkyl Sulfonates (PFAS) and Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) - a precursor of Teflon, two of the thousands of Toxic Perfluoroalkyl Substances in our environment ...
PFAS chemicals still exist in the environment because they are not easily broken down or degraded. They are toxic, persistent (stable) and can bioaccumulate in organisms.
PFAS contamination is often found near sites where it was produced or used by industries and on military bases. PFAS contaminants are water-soluble and easily infiltrate the soil into groundwater (ATSDR 2017) and find their way into adjacent waters.
When humans and other animals consume water or food containing PFAS, these chemicals can remain in the body for many years after exposure (Bruton and Blum 2017). The ATSDR (ATSDR 2017) has reviewed multiple studies and identified possible effects from exposure to PFAS in water and food, including effects on growth, developmental effects to fetuses, interferences with hormones, increases in cholesterol and immune system effects. Exposure can also lead to increased risk of liver, kidney and testicular cancer. In animals, potential health effects may include renal and liver toxicity, cancer, immune suppression, reproductive and developmental effects and mortality and delayed development of offspring (Bruton and Blum 2017).
Think DDT squaredA Must Read: The Lawyer Who Became DuPont’s Worst Nightmarehttps://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/the-lawyer-who-became-duponts-worst-nightmare.html Just months before Rob Bilott made partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister, he received a call on his direct line from a cattle farmer. The farmer, Wilbur Tennant of Parkersburg, W.Va., said that his cows were dying left and right. He believed that the DuPont chemical company, which until recently operated a site in Parkersburg that is more than 35 times the size of the Pentagon, was responsible. Tennant had tried to seek help locally, he said, but DuPont just about owned the entire town. He had been spurned not only by Parkersburg’s lawyers but also by its politicians, journalists, doctors and veterinarians.
DuPont purchased a 66 acre property from the Tennants rechristed Dry Run Landfill, named after the creek that ran through it. The same creek flowed down to a pasture where the Tennants grazed their cows. Not long after the sale, Wilbur told Bilott, the cattle began to act deranged.
... ‘‘I’ve taken two dead deer and two dead cattle off this ripple,’’ Tennant said. ‘‘The blood run out of their noses and out their mouths. ... They’re trying to cover this stuff up. ... The video shows a large pipe running into the creek, discharging green water with bubbles on the surface. ‘‘This is what they expect a man’s cows to drink on his own property,’’
Bilott watched the video and looked at photographs for several hours. He saw cows with stringy tails, malformed hooves, giant lesions protruding from their hides and red, receded eyes; cows suffering constant diarrhea, slobbering white slime the consistency of toothpaste, staggering bowlegged like drunks. Tennant always zoomed in on his cows’ eyes. ‘‘This cow’s done a lot of suffering,’’ he would say, as a blinking eye filled the screen.
‘‘This is bad,’’ Bilott said to himself. ‘‘There’s something really bad going on here.’’
... ‘‘I started seeing a story,’’ Bilott said. ‘‘I may have been the first one to actually go through them all [the evidence]. It became apparent what was going on: They had known for a long time that this stuff was bad.’’
Bilott could not believe the scale of incriminating material that DuPont had sent him. The company appeared not to realize what it had handed over. ‘‘It was one of those things where you can’t believe you’re reading what you’re reading,’’ he said. ‘‘That it’s actually been put in writing. It was the kind of stuff you always heard about happening but you never thought you’d see written down.’’ ...
It gets better ...
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PFAS Levels at NJ Base 24,000 Times Higher Than Proposed Fed Standard — Studyhttps://www.njspotlight.com/stories/18/10/04/pfas-levels-at-nj-base-24-000-times-higher-than-proposed-federal-standard-study-says/ -----------------------------------
Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water Leave Military Families Reelinghttps://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/us/military-water-toxic-chemicals.html... All told, 10 million people could be drinking water laced with high levels of PFAS, according to Patrick Breysse, a top official at the federal Centers for Disease Control. Mr. Breysse has called the presence of the chemicals “one of the most seminal public health challenges” of the coming decades.
... frustration persists. The military never alerted all of the people who drank polluted water, meaning some are still in the dark. When asked how many people were affected by contamination, Ms. Sullivan said she “couldn’t hazard a guess.”
“We’re tracking water sources,” she said, “not people.”
... a growing movement of veterans and others,.. are asking the military test their blood for the chemicals, hoping to bring results to their doctors or use them in lawsuits.
Their requests have been denied, and the military says that too little is known about the substances to make the results useful.
... “They don’t want to know,” said Cindi Ashbeck, 56, a veteran who worked out of Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Michigan. “It’s not being addressed, because you open that can of worms, and you’ve got an Agent Orange thing on your hands.”
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The U.S. Military Plans to Keep Incinerating Toxic Firefighting Foam, Despite Health Risks https://static.theintercept.com/amp/toxic-firefighting-foam-pfas-pfoa.html ... The Air Force itself acknowledged in a 2017 document that the foam, which was designed to resist extremely high temperatures, is hard to burn and that “the high-temperature chemistry of PFOS and PFOA has not been characterized, so there is no precedent to predict products of pyrolysis or combustion, temperatures at which these will occur, or the extent of destruction that will be realized.”
Even more concerning, “environmentally unsatisfactory” byproducts may be created by incinerating the foam. Among the highly toxic byproducts of PFAS incineration are hydrofluoric acid, which burns human skin on contact; perfluoroisobutylene, a chemical that so reliably kills people within hours of being inhaled that it’s been used as a warfare agent; as well as dioxins and furans, which cause cancer. ....
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3M Knew About the Dangers of PFOA and PFOS Decades Ago, Internal Documents Showhttps://theintercept.com/2018/07/31/3m-pfas-minnesota-pfoa-pfos/ ------------------------------------
Children’s Exposure to PFAS Chemicals Begins in the Wombhttps://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2019/02/children-s-exposure-pfas-chemicals-begins-womb ------------------------------
Cancer-Causing Compounds Found In Alligators, Dolphins, Wildlife at Kennedy Space Centerhttps://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/environment/lagoon/2018/08/24/cancer-alligators-dolphins-kennedy-space-center/934923002/---------------------------------
PFAS in Drinking Water: Hazardous at Ever-Lower Levelshttps://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2019/02/pfas-drinking-water-hazardous-ever-lower-levels --------------------------------
PFAS 'Do Not Eat' Fish Advisory Issued For Sites on Huron River in Oakland, Livingston and Washtenaw Michigan Countieshttps://www.theoaklandpress.com/lifestyles/health/pfas-do-not-eat-fish-advisory-issued-for-sites-on/article_af75b526-9980-11e8-b0fc-572d36d11897.html -------------------------------
Map | Here are Confirmed PFAS Threats to Michigan Waterhttps://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/map-here-are-confirmed-pfas-threats-michigan-water Michigan’s list of contaminated sites is likely to grow as the state continues to test all public water systems and schools that tap well water.
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Trump EPA Won’t Limit Chemicals Found In Alabama Drinking Water, Report Sayshttps://www.al.com/news/2019/01/trump-epa-wont-limit-chemicals-found-in-alabama-drinking-water-report-says.html------------------------------------------------
EPA Nominee’s Inaction On Water Contaminants is Troublinghttps://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorial/epa-nominee-s-inaction-on-water-contaminants-is-troubling-1.26685592 The federal government continues to abdicate its responsibility to protect the nation’s health and environment. EPA acting head Andrew Wheeler, one of several agency officials who once lobbied for industry, refuses to act on PFOA and PFOSs.
Now it’s the Environmental Protection Agency’s apparent refusal to set drinking-water limits for PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid), which have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, among other ailments. The Trump administration last year tried to block an EPA report that found the tap water of at least 16 million Americans contains unsafe levels of the chemicals, found in firefighting foam and Teflon-coated cookware.
The intervention by Scott Pruitt’s aides came after one White House official warned the findings would cause a ‘public relations nightmare.'
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/14/emails-white-house-interfered-with-science-study-536950
This issue is probably one reason Michael Dourson withdrew his nomination to head the EPA’s chemical regulation branch. Two North Carolina senators opposed the nomination largely because he had worked for industry on a related chemical known as GenX.
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Worrisome Nonstick Chemicals are Common in U.S. Drinking Water, Federal Study Suggestshttps://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/02/worrisome-nonstick-chemicals-are-common-us-drinking-water-federal-study-suggests-------------------------------------------------
To the EPA, ‘Forever Chemicals’ Are a Big Problem Nowhttps://www.washingtonpost.com/business/to-the-epa-forever-chemicals-are-a-big-problem-now/2019/02/14/c73d8e10-3073-11e9-8781-763619f12cb4_story.htmlWhat do you do about lab-made chemicals that are in 99 percent of people in the U.S. and have been linked to immune system problems and cancer? Whose bonds are so stable that they’re often called “forever chemicals”? Meet PFAS, a class of chemicals that some scientists call the next PCB or DDT. ...
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EPA: GenX Nearly as Toxic as Notorious Non-Stick Chemicals It Replacedhttps://www.ewg.org/release/epa-genx-nearly-toxic-notorious-non-stick-chemicals-it-replaced ------------------------------------------
Chemours Is Using The U.S. As An Unregulated Dump for Europe’s Toxic GenX Wastehttps://theintercept.com/2019/02/01/chemours-genx-north-carolina-netherlands/----------------------------------------
'Forever' chemicals leave costly water problem in 'Twin Cities', and across the countryhttps://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/02/14/pfas-leaves-costly-water-problem-in-bemidji-and-other-cities---------------------------------
Chemical made by 3M, other firms, forces Bemidji to abandon water wellshttp://www.businessnorth.com/minnesota_public_radio/chemical-made-by-m-other-firms-forces-bemidji-to-abandon/article_1a72cbaa-3145-11e9-bee7-9bd833ba858e.html --------------------------------
PFASs Seen as Biggest Emerging Chemical Issue for US Stateshttps://chemicalwatch.com/62977/pfass-seen-as-biggest-emerging-chemical-issue-for-us-states ---------------------------------------------
Hundreds of Unrecognized Halogenated Contaminants Discovered in Polar Bear Serumhttps://phys.org/news/2018-12-hundreds-unrecognized-halogenated-contaminants-polar.html---------------------------------------------
This Is How Perfluorinated Substance Pollution Is Distributed In Spainhttps://phys.org/news/2017-11-perfluorinated-substance-pollution-spain.html ----------------------------------
OBTW if you see any article by the American Council on Science and Health on this subject consider the source ...The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH) is a pro-industry[2][3][4] nonprofit advocacy organization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Council_on_Science_and_Health
ACSH frequently advocates against regulating chemicals without scientific proof of harm. A 2009 editorial by board member Henry Miller in Investor's Business Daily criticized the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s employment of the precautionary principle to regulate chemicals such as bisphenol-A, phthalates, flame retardants, the herbicide atrazine and fluorinated chemicals used to make Teflon, all of which he described as "important and demonstrably safe".
In 2013, leaked internal financial documents revealed that 58% of the ACSH's donations in the period from July 1, 2012 to December 20, 2012 came from corporations and large private foundations, many of which themselves had ties to industries.[3] Donors included Chevron, Coca-Cola, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Bayer Cropscience, Procter & Gamble, Syngenta, 3M, McDonald's and Altria.[3] In addition, the documents revealed that the organization had on numerous occasions directly solicited donations from industry sources on the basis of projected reports on the specific issues in which those companies and industry organizations had such a stake.[3]
In 2017, 26 health, environmental, labor and public interest groups sent a letter to US Today, asking them to "refrain from publishing further columns authored by members of the American Council on Science and Health, or at the very least require that the individuals identify the organization accurately as a corporate-funded advocacy group"
Gilbert Ross, ACSH's former medical director, served time in federal prison and had his medical license revoked for Medicare fraud before being hired by ACSH ... (wholesome people one and all)