Up to 40,000 to sue Australian Government over PFAS contamination
29 Oct 2019 | news.com.au
The largest class action ever launched in Australia will be filed against the Federal Government by Christmas. The lawyers will argue that residents living in PFAS contaminated areas have seen their property prices fall, in some cases by up to 50 per cent. They believe the Federal Government should provide enough compensation to allow residents to leave these unsafe communities.
Chemours calls for focused PFAS research, controls
24 Oct 2019 | Bloomberg Environment
Chemours, facing hundreds of millions in liability, believes that the regulatory focus should be on the non-polymer category of PFAS. Efforts also should include a look at side-chain fluorinated polymers because “these compounds do have the potential to degrade under certain conditions to form non-polymer PFAS." Chemours has also committed to making its authentic reference standards publicly available and called upon the rest of the fluoropolymer industry to do the same.
Top U.S. toxicologist was barred from saying PFAS cause disease in humans. She’s saying it now
24 Oct 2019 | The Intercept
“I was banned from doing it,” said Birnbaum. “I had to use ‘association’ all the time. If I was talking about human data or impacts on people, I had to always say there was an association with a laundry list of effects.”
More than 2 dozen groups urge Wisconsin lawmakers to act on PFAS contamination
24 Oct 2019 | Wisconsin State Journal
The coalition is pushing for adoption of a bill known as the CLEAR Act, which would require the DNR to establish and enforce standards for at least six PFAS. Additionally, the CLEAR Act, would allow the DNR to require anyone who possesses PFAS to prove they have the financial means to clean up any potential contamination. Lawmakers are also considering a Republican-sponsored bill that would limit where firefighters and others could test or train with foam containing PFAS.
PFAS exposure may increase risk of breast cancer
24 Oct 2019 | EWG News
To reduce the risk of breast cancer and other health impacts from PFAS, Congress should include in the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2020 provisions that would quickly phase out the use of PFAS in military firefighting foam, reduce industrial discharges of PFAS, require reporting and monitoring for PFAS in ground and surface water, and jump-start the cleanup process under Superfund.
Shapiro: ‘Legal action’ coming for companies tied to PFAS drinking water contamination
23 Oct 2019 | The Intelligencer
Attorney General Josh Shapiro says his office will file legal action in the coming months against companies that made firefighting foams. Chemicals found in the foams have contaminated Bucks and Montgomery County communities.
Michigan hires private lawyers also pushing opioid cases for PFAS lawsuit
23 Oct 2019 | Legal Newsline
Fields PLLC of Washington, D.C. will head Michigan’s PFAS case. Previously, Richard Fields found major success in asbestos and breast implant litigation by taking on the insurance companies that issued policies to the corporate defendants.
Dr. Phil Brown talks PFAS contamination and ongoing research
23 Oct 2019 | Northeastern University
“It’s a big deal,” Brown says. “You put all this together and it’s the biggest chemical contamination issue in many, many years.” The important part, he says, is to regulate these chemicals as a class, rather than individually. Otherwise, each of the roughly 4,700 chemicals would need to be investigated separately, even if they had only minor molecular differences. And since the health effects are long-term problems like cancer, these studies could take decades.
GenX protest at plant near Fayetteville on Oct. 26
22 Oct 2019 | Fayetteville Observer
People angry about the GenX chemical contamination of water supplies south of Fayetteville plan to hold a protest at the Chemours Co. chemical plant.This will be held in conjunction with other protests at Chemours operations in Italy and Mexico.
10 toxic ‘forever chemicals’ found in Louisville, KY, tap water
22 Oct 2019 | EWG News
The highest level of any single PFAS detected in the EWG sample collected in Louisville was 22 ppt of a compound known as GenX. It is a replacement chemical for PFOA, which was used to make Teflon before U.S. manufacturers phased it out of production under pressure from the EPA. The EPA’s research has found that GenX is nearly as toxic as the PFOA it replaced, and DuPont, its original manufacturer, has provided test results to the EPA showing that GenX caused cancer in lab animals.
EPA still plans to introduce PFAS limits for drinking water by year-end
22 Oct 2019 | mlive
Federal officials said during a visit to Michigan that they are on track to meet a year-end deadline to propose regulatory standards for PFAS in drinking water.
Clean drinking water options for Hoosick Falls considered
21 Oct 2019 | Bennington Banner
Connecting to the existing Troy system was seen as the most expensive, at $48.5 million; connecting to a new untreated surface water source from the Tomhannock, at $34.4 million; continued filtering of existing village wells plus a remediation system for contaminants at McCaffrey Street, $10.1 million; development of a new village well water sources, at $6.9 million, and continued use of filtering alone at the existing village wells at $6.3 million. Comments on the report will be accepted until Nov. 18.
Erin Brockovich sounds alarm over PFAS after more Queensland sites revealed
20 Oct 2019 | ABC News
More than 60 sites in Queensland are believed to be contaminated by PFAS. A university campus and a residential development are being built on two of the contaminated sites. Erin Brockovich says Australia is behind in dealing with the issue.
Lawsuit wants tough PFAS drinking water standards in NH scrapped
18 Oct 2019 | Associated Press
Lawyers for 3M, a farmer and several others urged a judge to scrap drinking water standards in the state that go far beyond federal limits for toxic chemicals.
Now retired, top U.S. environmental scientist feels free to speak her mind
17 Oct 2019 | Science Magazine
PFAS "make dioxin look easy. There are 5000 and the number keeps growing. There are multiple nuclear receptors which can be impacted by PFAS. There are also many other pathways that are affected. Of the thousands of PFAS, really, there’s only a fair amount of data on two of them."