{"id":56506,"date":"2021-01-25T08:13:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T13:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56506"},"modified":"2021-01-25T08:13:25","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T13:13:25","slug":"the-latest-story-of-toxic-deceit-and-delay-pfas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=56506","title":{"rendered":"The latest story of toxic deceit and delay: PFAS"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"post-title entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/resourceinsights.blogspot.com\/2021\/01\/the-latest-story-of-toxic-deceit-and.html\">The latest story of toxic deceit and delay: PFAS<\/a><\/h3>\n<div id=\"post-body-9190063670065775046\" class=\"post-body entry-content\">\n<p>Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS\u2014a group of persistent toxic chemicals often referred to as &#8220;forever chemicals&#8221;\u2014are everywhere. Don&#8217;t take my word for it. Here is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/pfas\/basic-information-pfas\">a list<\/a>\u00a0posted on the site of the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) agency:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Food<\/strong>\u00a0packaged in PFAS-containing materials, processed with equipment that used PFAS, or grown in PFAS-contaminated soil or water.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Commercial household products<\/strong>, including stain- and water-repellent fabrics, nonstick products (e.g., Teflon), polishes, waxes, paints, cleaning products, and fire-fighting foams (a major source of groundwater contamination at airports and military bases where firefighting training occurs).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Workplace<\/strong>, including production facilities or industries (e.g., chrome plating, electronics manufacturing or oil recovery) that use PFAS.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Drinking water<\/strong>, typically localized and associated with a specific facility (e.g., manufacturer, landfill, wastewater treatment plant, firefighter training facility).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Living organisms<\/strong>, including fish, animals and humans, where PFAS have the ability to build up and persist over time<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>PFAS are even\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/25497307\/\">found in animals in Antarctica<\/a>. Here is a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/pfas\/basic-information-pfas#health\">list of health effects<\/a>\u00a0again provided by the EPA:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Infant birth weights<\/li>\n<li>Effects on the immune system<\/li>\n<li>Cancer (for PFOA)<\/li>\n<li>Thyroid hormone disruption (for PFOS).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a name=\"more\"><\/a>PFOA and PFOS are specific kinds of PFAS. Perhaps of most interest right now because of the ongoing pandemic are the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ewg.org\/news-and-analysis\/2020\/11\/pfas-chemicals-harm-immune-system-decrease-response-vaccines-new-ewg\">deleterious effects of these chemicals on the immune system<\/a>\u00a0including reducing the effectiveness of vaccines. And, perhaps the most important thing you need to know about PFAS is that\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ewg.org\/research\/ewg-proposes-pfas-standards-fully-protect-children-s-health\">scientists keep reducing their estimates of what is a safe exposure<\/a>\u00a0as more data accumulates.<\/p>\n<p>PFAS have been around since the 1950s. So, how did these dangerous chemicals\u2014which don&#8217;t break down in the environment\u2014escape the notice of regulatory officials for so long? The answer is all too familiar and echoes\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/resourceinsights.blogspot.com\/2019\/07\/a-little-bit-means-lot-why-minute.html\">similar trajectories for such toxic legacies as unleaded gasoline, glyphosate, chlorofluorocarbons, and bisphenol A<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The latest story of toxic deceit and delay: PFAS Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS\u2014a group of persistent toxic chemicals often referred to as &#8220;forever chemicals&#8221;\u2014are everywhere. Don&#8217;t take my word for it. Here is\u00a0a list\u00a0posted on the site of the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) agency: Food\u00a0packaged in PFAS-containing materials, processed with equipment that used [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3185,419,4752,20263,20264,4967,15697],"class_list":["post-56506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-environmental-protection-agency","tag-immune-system","tag-kurt-cobb","tag-pfas","tag-polyfluoroalkyl","tag-resource-insights","tag-toxic-chemicals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=56506"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56506\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56507,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56506\/revisions\/56507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=56506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=56506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=56506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}