With additional production support and partnership from MLive Media Group and the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting program at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. Learn about what PFAS contamination in drinking water has meant to families in west Michigan in this Emmy-winning documentary from Great Lakes Now. according to the Food and Drug Administration, have been linked to more severe cases of Covid-19, how much of the chemicals can be present in water, have generally been handled at a state level. As an example, Dr. Vorst said to imagine a factory that intentionally used PFAS in its products. PFAS are in your shampoo bottle, your stain-resistant couch, your dental floss, your bicycle lubricant. Because of their widespread use and their persistence in the environment, many PFAS are found in the blood of people and animals all over the world and are present at low levels in a variety of food products and in the environment. Find our work and our partners reporting on this page. McDonalds and Burger King said they were committed to removing all PFAS from their packaging by the end of 2025. PFAS are found in water, air, fish, and soil at locations across the nation and the globe. Forever Chemicals is what PFAS, PFOA and PFOS are all known as because of how long it takes them to break down in peoples bodies and the environment. Ask the Great Lakes Now Team Your PFAS Question, Beneath the Surface: The Line 5 Pipeline in the Great Lakes, Collection 1 An Exploration of the Great Lakes, Collection 2 Threats to the Great Lakes, Collection 3 Virtual Field Trips in the Great Lakes, Collection 4 Lesson Plans from Our Monthly PBS Program, PFAS News Roundup: Forever chemicals in drinking water, common PFAS questions answered, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Partnership, EPA Warns of Health Problems When PFAS Levels in Drinking Water Are Inconceivably Tiny, PFAS News Roundup: Research and policy aiming to help eradicate forever chemicals, MI environmental group calls EPAs PFAS advisory a wake-up call for industries, PFAS News Roundup: EPA sets new standards, orders firefighting foam makers to test products, FRESH: Research Highlights Gaps in Federal Air Pollution Data, Wisconsin Republicans allow PFAS standards to take effect, Climate-driven flooding poses well water contamination risks. Thats why we think they produce the health effects that they produce.. We want to curtail exposure, but it is not an immediate disaster.. Since the 1960s the Food and Drug Administration has been aware of how PFAS affect the body, Melanie Benesh, a legislative lawyer with the Environmental Working Group, said in an interview. Please click here to see any active alerts. A net-zero PFAS concentration is impossible, Dr. Vorst said. But the reports did not immediately spur new regulation. Its in trees. Its a subtle threat, so people have a hard time knowing what to make of it, he added. Fresh is a biweekly newsletter from Circle of Blue that unpacks the biggest international, state, and local policy news stories facing the Great Lakes region today. Most current PFAS regulations concern how much of the chemicals can be present in water, but regulations for their use in products have generally been handled at a state level. Digital Designers: Shelby Jouppi, Mila Murray, Digital Video for The Forever Chemicals documentary: Angela Brayman, Marie Gould, Rob Green, Zosette Guir, Matt Ilas, William Kubota, Sandra Svoboda, Jordan Wingrove, Ernie Zinger. In the same month, the Environmental Protection Agency also released a PFAS Strategic Roadmap, in which it laid out plans for further research into PFAS and for the development of usage guidelines. Learn more about how we are increasing our understanding of the health risks of PFAS. This was really a preventable crisis., PFAS: The Forever Chemicals You Couldnt Escape if You Tried, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/12/us/pfas-chemicals-fast-food.html. Based on nothing more than their name, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances certainly dont sound like something youd want to find in your burger wrapper. And as we now know, everything they touch is, well, virtually everything around us. PFAS have been found in some brands of yoga pants and other types of athletic apparel. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Tony Evers administration developed to control pollution from a group of chemicals known as PFAS to take effect. Even if that factory completely stopped using the compounds today, traces of PFAS would still be found in the companys products in 10 or 15 years if it continued to use the same production plant. From packaging and products, PFAS have found their way into rainwater, soil, sediment, ice caps, and outdoor and indoor plants. These groups of industrial chemicals are used in many non-stick household products, food packages and waterproofed outdoor clothing. Their indestructible nature also means that they can cross-contaminate everything they touch, Dr. Vorst said. A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Right now the biggest thing we can do is phase it out of production, Dr. Vorst said. The collaboration began with the Forever Chemicals documentary and these MLive articles about the financial cost to local communities who need to deal with the contaminations. The U.S. EPA issued health advisories for PFAS that essentially suggest there is no safe level of PFAS in drinking water. And although scientists and regulators agree that PFAS should be taken out of use as soon as possible, they also say that the chemical is not an immediate threat to health, David A. Savitz, a professor of epidemiology at Brown University, said in an interview. And research is only beginning to determine the health effects and what, if any, treatment there might be. At least not in our lifetimes. Its in the Arctic. This makes it challenging to study and assess the potential human health and environmental risks. Learn more about our current understanding of PFAS. What responsibility does industry have? To say that PFAS are difficult to avoid is an understatement. Read the latest news from EPA about PFAS. Once they get into the body, they like to hang out in the blood because they like to stick to proteins in our blood and interact with all sorts of different molecules, said Jamie DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to some PFAS in the environment may be linked to harmful health effects in humans and animals. That resulted in the ultimate lack of regulation and has left us scrambling to try and address this issue now, Ms. Benesh added. In October, the Biden administration revealed a plan to combat PFAS pollution. It can take four to 15 years for levels of PFAS to reduce by half in the human body, and it can take centuries for the substances to disappear from the environment, researchers said. After a documentary screening at the Sustainable Brands 2019 conference in Detroit, Great Lakes Now hosted an audience discussion with the MLive Media Group reporters who have been leading the coverage of the PFAS issue in Michigan. Plainfield Township officials estimate that $62 million is needed to bring municipal water to areas contaminated by PFAS chemicals. Catch the latest updates on whats happening with PFAS in Great Lakes Nows biweekly headline roundup. Clockwise from top left: Saul Loeb/AFP Getty Images; Evan Sung for The New York Times; Amy Lombard for The New York Times; Chuck Burton/Associated Press. And when these multipurpose compounds are used in food packaging, they have a way of transferring to the food itself. Michigan residents may be in line to pay for the fixes to PFAS contamination for years to come. The carbon-fluorine bond itself doesnt break apart in the environment, and so once the chemicals are released, they typically spread out.. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Cava, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant whose packaging has high levels of PFAS, according to Consumer Reports, began phasing out the compounds from its products in August, but has run into supply chain issues that delayed the process, a Cava representative said in a statement. The Great Lakes Now team that produced The Forever Chemicals won the 2020 Michigan Emmy in the Health/Science Program/Special category. The first evidence that PFAS were toxic to the body was submitted to the F.D.A. As one researcher put it: everywhere.. Some PFAS contain compounds that could accumulate in the lungs and have been linked to more severe cases of Covid-19. While many private wells provide safe water, the absence of regulation and treatment afforded by larger municipal systems may expose some users to health risks, from bacteria and viruses to chemicals and lead. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a group of over a thousand chemical compounds that were discovered in 1938 by a young chemist named Roy Plunkett who was working at DuPont at the time. An official website of the United States government. And how worried do you need to be about them? And what are the financial, medical and social costs? It is at the bottom of the ocean, Keith Vorst, an associate professor at Iowa State University who studies the levels of PFAS in products, said in an interview. But advocates say this might be too little, too late. What can people do to protect themselves and their families? Even when there have been detectable levels of PFAS, the agency said, our safety assessments have shown no cause for avoiding these foods.. recommends not reading too much into the fact that a given product might have detectable levels of the chemicals. EPA's researchers and partners across the country are working hard to answer critical questions about PFAS: How to better and more efficiently detect and measure PFAS in our air, water, soil, and fish and wildlife, How harmful PFAS are to people and the environment. Anyone can read what you share. Wisconsin Republicans will allow regulations Democratic Gov. The city started to ask in 2017: What can we do about it?. Long-term exposure to PFAS has been linked to an increased risk of some cancers, immune system suppression and problems with fetal development. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The information provided here is intended to explain some of the important background information needed to understand the details of specific actions EPA takes to address PFAS, and other emerging events related to PFAS. But according to a recent investigation by Consumer Reports, theyre very much there as well as in your salad bowl, fry bag and sandwich wrap. Nathans Famous began phasing out PFAS from its wrappers in 2020, completely eliminating its traditional red and green striped bags, the company said, and will stop using products that include PFAS by design before the end of the year. The substances have been detected in the living tissues of animals around the world. Virtually indestructible, these artificial compounds are used in fast-food packaging and countless household items, but they have been found as far away as virgin forests. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Their first use was as the nonstick agent in Teflon. So what are these virtually indestructible compounds, created in a lab in 1938 by a 27-year-old chemist? This information will help EPA and state, local, and tribal partners make more informed decisions on how best to protect human health and the environment. Official websites use .gov Because they dont easily degrade, they can accumulate in our bodies and the environment when ingested or otherwise internalized. Its a curious acronym PFAS and it stands for a family of chemicals thats in most homes and being detected in an increasing number of peoples water systems in Michigan and other states and provinces. Theyre called forever chemicals because theyre incredibly persistent, said David Andrews, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization. by DuPont, where the chemicals were created, in 1966. PFAS are widely used, long lasting chemicals, components of which break down very slowly over time. Michigan regulators say they need more evidence about safety, engineering and fire and explosion risks before deciding whether to let Enbridge Energy move its Line 5 petroleum pipeline into a tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac. They have since been added to an array of products to make them resistant to heat, water, oil and corrosion. Its in the polar bears. It covers the following topics: Our current understanding of the human health and environmental risks PFAS, Increasing our understanding of the health risks from PFAS and how to address them, Meaningful and achievable action steps that can be taken to reduce risk. EPA is committed to providing meaningful, understandable, and actionable information on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS to the American public. JavaScript appears to be disabled on this computer. Great Lakes Nows coverage has explored these issues and more. Has the U.S. Air Force done enough to clean up firefighting foam? Although these substances have been in use for eight decades, regulators have only recently acquired the scientific understanding and technical capacity needed to test for them at the very low concentrations measured in parts per trillion at which theyre present in food, according to the Food and Drug Administration. We have literally polluted our planet.. The substances are found in packaging used not only at fast-food restaurants like McDonalds and Burger King, but also at more health-oriented spots like Cava and Sweetgreen. The Forever Chemicals documentary was produced by Rob Green and Sandra Svoboda. All we can hope for is getting as close to zero as possible.. There are thousands of PFAS chemicals, and they are found in many different consumer, commercial, and industrial products. In the last decade, many companies have voluntarily removed PFAS from their products, and contamination rates in human blood have decreased, Dr. Savitz said. In light of those advances, the F.D.A. In short, well never get rid of them. Since 2019, Great Lakes Now has partnered with MLive Media Group to bring audiences news and information about PFAS and drinking water. The chemical composition of PFAS they are created by fusing carbon and fluorine atoms makes the compounds practically unbreakable. The project was supported by the Ravitch Fiscal Reporting Program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. How are federal, state and local governments responding? John Olivers Last Week Tonight program on HBO features Great Lakes Now work. Representatives from a number of Michigan communitiesOscoda, Flint, Detroit and Belmont among themgathered on Wednesday to call on the U.S. Air Force for action on PFAS cleanup.
Sitemap 7