Tag: PFAS

WV congressional delegation not on same page on legislation targeting PFAS

Charleston Gazette-Mail: WV congressional delegation not on same page on legislation targeting PFAS.

hey’re in our clothes, our food and our blood. We made them virtually indestructible, but there’s evidence that they can destroy us.

They’re per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industrial chemicals whose extensive contamination and deleterious health effects have left a toxic legacy in West Virginia.

But West Virginia’s congressional delegation isn’t on the same page when it comes to recently reintroduced federal legislation designed to protect Americans from PFAS, the “forever chemicals” that don’t break down in the human body and the environment and can be found in food, household products and drinking water.

Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., and Fred Upton, R-Mich., last week announced legislation that would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to establish a national drinking water standard for two of the most extensively found PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS).

Above the Fold – Children’s News, April 22, 2021

Articles include: Report: Lead in Pennsylvania water; tougher air pollution limits needed; Report: climate’s impact on children’s health and justice; Report: dogs and human fertility; Study: father’s drinking and children’s health; North Pole pollution; lead pipes in Buffalo, NY; climate change guide for kids; Study: forever chemicals and the immune system; school in Portland, OR, and munitions facility; PCBs in Vermont school; Study: tap water research; Study here and here: toxic nanotech graphene face masks.

Above the Fold – Week’s Best & Covid

Environmental Health News puts out weekend ‘summary’ emails, in addition to their daily emails.

EHN Week’s Best: April 16, 2021: forever chemicals on paper straws; Piney Point pollution; jails and environmental justice; DDT; PFAS; drought’s impact on farming water;  rechargeable batteries – real cost; Mexico and coal; heavy metals in children’s food; Japan dumping Fukushima’s radioactive water into the ocean.

EHN Covid: April 16, 2021: facemask garbage; underserved communities & J&J vaccine halt; green spaces & housing justice;  loosing women scientists; how to stop a pandemic.

EHN Sciences.org- April 9, 2021

EHSciences.org produces many links to environmental and health related stories. They are well worth subscribing to.

Above The Fold – Children’s News: DDT; PFAS; chemicals’ impact on male fertility;  Black maternal health; children held in toxic detention centers; their ‘Fractured’ investigation; toxic heavy metals in baby food; federal support for food program; asthma funding in California; lead legislation; FDA’s rationale on baby food; pediatricians and lead poisoning.

Above The Fold – Covid News: US intelligence report; pregnancy & vaccination; predicting the next pandemic; food workers and Covid; pink dolphins in Hong Kong; AI designing antibodies; pandemic & electric vehicles.

Study: Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity

The Guardian: Plummeting sperm counts, shrinking penises: toxic chemicals threaten humanity. by .  The chemicals to blame for our reproductive crisis are found everywhere and in everything.

The end of humankind? It may be coming sooner than we think, thanks to hormone-disrupting chemicals that are decimating fertility at an alarming rate around the globe. A new book called Countdown, by Shanna Swan, an environmental and reproductive epidemiologist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, finds that sperm counts have dropped almost 60% since 1973. Following the trajectory we are on, Swan’s research suggests sperm counts could reach zero by 2045. Zero. Let that sink in. That would mean no babies. No reproduction. No more humans. Forgive me for asking: why isn’t the UN calling an emergency meeting on this right now?

As if this wasn’t terrifying enough, Swan’s research finds that these chemicals aren’t just dramatically reducing semen quality, they are also shrinking penis size and volume of the testes. This is nothing short of a full-scale emergency for humanity.

Swan’s book echoes previous research, which has found that PFAS harms sperm production, disrupts the male hormone and is correlated to a “reduction of semen quality, testicular volume and penile length”. These chemicals are literally confusing our bodies, making them send mix messages and go haywire.

Tap water, household products and cat contaminated by toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’

The Guardian: I tested my tap water, household products and cat for toxic ‘forever chemicals’. After spending several months reporting on the PFAS crisis, I had an alarming realization: taco night might be poisoning me.

I learned that the type of nonstick pans that I used to fry the fish usually contain the toxic chemicals, also called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Research alerted me to their use in some types of parchment paper, which I used to roll tortillas, while the aluminum foil in which I wrapped leftovers raised a red flag with its “nonstick” label. For dessert, I purchased cookies that a local bakery packed in the type of paper bags sometimes treated with PFAS, and the chemicals may have been in my tap water and fish.

But PFAS, dubbed “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down, aren’t only lurking in the kitchen. The synthetic compounds are often used to make thousands of everyday products water, stain and grease resistant, and they’re popular with manufacturers across dozens of industries because they’re so effective. That’s a problem because the class of about 4,700 compounds is linked to serious health problems like cancer, heart disease, birth defects, liver disease and decreased immunity.

The extent of PFAS contamination is only now coming into focus – studies have found drinking water supplies for well over 100 million people across demographic lines may be contaminated by the chemicals. It’s estimated that they’re present in 97% of Americans’ blood, and public health advocates are just starting to understand how widespread their use is in everyday products.

6 articles on chemicals and our health

The Guardian: Monsanto owner and US officials pressured Mexico to drop glyphosate ban. Internal government emails show actions similar to those by Bayer and lobbyists to kill a proposed ban in Thailand in 2019. Internal government emails reveal Monsanto owner Bayer AG and industry lobbyist CropLife America have been working closely with US officials to pressure Mexico into abandoning its intended ban on glyphosate, a pesticide linked to cancer that is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkillers.

The Guardian: Am I going to regret it?’: forever chemicals dilemma for breastfeeding mothers. Many health experts and advocates say breastfeeding is the best choice for babies but the threat of passing on contamination from PFAS is prompting new questions.

Undark: A New Strategy to Reduce Suicide by Pesticide Poisoning. To address suicide rates in many developing countries, a WHO study urges national bans on hazardous pesticides. Globally, an estimated 110,000 to 168,000 lives are lost to this act every year, accounting for about 14 to 20 percent of overall suicides, according to a 2017 assessment in the Journal of Affective Disorders. A WHO-funded study published in December in The Lancet Global Health found that enacting such bans in 14 mostly developing countries could reduce suicide deaths by 28,000 people per year.

PennLive: PA American Water sues manufacturers of toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’. One of Pennsylvania’s largest water utilities has sued 3M, DuPont and a host of other companies, alleging they knew — or should have known — that so-called “forever chemicals” they manufactured and distributed posed a hazard to the public.

New York Times: Annie’s Pledges to Purge a Class of Chemicals from its Mac and Cheese. The move comes nearly four years after a study showed that chemicals believed to cause health problems in children and reproductive issues in adults were found in mass-market macaroni and cheese packets. The 2017 study, which was funded by environmental advocacy groups and was not published in a peer-reviewed journal, discovered the chemicals in all 10 of the mac and cheese varieties it tested, though the brands were not identified. [No study link provided.]

CNN: Chemicals in plastics damage babies’ brains and must be banned immediately, expert group says. Synthetic chemicals called phthalates are damaging children’s brain development and therefore must be immediately banned from consumer products, according to a group of scientists and health professionals from Project TENDR.

Study: Toxic Pesticides – 2 articles

NPR: Toxic Pesticide Faces New Scrutiny From Biden Administration. President Biden’s initial wave of planned executive actions includes an order to reexamine one controversial, but widely used, pesticide called chlorpyrifos. The Trump administration had stepped in to keep the chemical on the market after Obama-era officials tried to ban it.

PBS: New PFAS study reveals ‘forever’ pollutants persisting in NM’s waters. Winding its way through forests of conifer and aspen, cottonwoods and sycamores, the Gila River descends out of the nation’s first wilderness area, designated in 1924. For almost a century, a U.S. Geological Survey stream gage just below that boundary has tracked the river’s flows. Now, samples from that spot reveal the presence of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The channel of the Rio Puerco, where it hits Bernardo, New Mexico, is dry for most of the year, except when snowmelt or summer floods send waters churning down this tributary of the Rio Grande. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been found there, too. An October 2020 study estimated that more than 200 million Americans could have the toxic chemicals within their drinking water supplies.  

PFAS CHEMICALS ARE TURNING UP IN TAP WATER ACROSS THE COUNTRY.

Ensia discusses PFAS CHEMICALS ARE TURNING UP IN TAP WATER ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HOW DO WE GET THEM OUT? Removing “forever” chemicals from drinking water is not an easy task.

This piece was expanded and updated from an original report in the Dayton [Ohio] Daily News published in June 2020. This story is part of a nine-month investigation of drinking water contamination across the U.S. The series is supported by funding from the Park Foundation and Water Foundation. Read the launch story, “Thirsting for Solutions,” here.

A group of manmade substances that can cause serious health problems in humans and animals is increasingly threatening U.S. drinking water systems, experts say. Scientists are working hard to better understand per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances — or PFAS — and develop technologies to minimize harm from these extraordinarily durable pollutants.

PFAS is the umbrella term for a variety of substances, including PFOA, PFOS and GenX. Exposure to high levels of PFAS may decrease vaccine response in children and cause some forms of cancer and birth defects. PFAS also affect the kidneys, liver and immune system, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Chemical poisons – 4 articles

The Guardian discusses The poison found in everyone, even unborn babies – and who is responsible for it. Chemicals called PFAS and PFOS – known as forever chemicals – are in the blood of virtually every person on the planet. And they will only accumulate.

Ensia discusses how PFAS pollutes water in every state. Wherever you are in the U.S., there’s a good chance you can find harmful PFAS compounds in water near you.

OPB discusses Oregon moves to phase out most uses of a controversial pesticide by 2023. The Oregon Department of Agriculture says it will begin to limit the use of chlorpyrifos and ultimately phase out nearly all its use by 2023. The agency’s decision, announced Tuesday, followed extensive research and input from an advisory workgroup that included leaders and industry experts ranging from agriculture, environmental justice groups, toxicologists, and a farmworker health and safety organization. The ODA submitted rules this week to significantly limit the use of chlorpyrifos and phase out all its use by December 31, 2023.

Investigate Midwest discusses Lawsuit Alleges Farmworkers Sickened After Pesticide Exposure.