Testing for PFAS on Cape Cod: STEEP Team visits Barnstable, Yarmouth
4 Oct 2019
46 percent of 101 private wells tested in 12 Cape towns contained at least one PFAS chemical. Two or more PFAS chemicals were detected in 28 percent of the wells. Three percent had PFAS levels exceeding a new, stricter groundwater standard of 20 ppt for six emerging chemical. Presentations from STEEP Science Day are available online at web.uri.edu/steep/news-events/science-day-2/
Federal judge’s ruling allows class action suit against PFAS makers to proceed
3 Oct 2019 | EWG Press Release
This class action includes every U.S. resident with detectable levels of PFAS chemicals in their blood and who have claimed they have been injured as a result of being exposed.
3M suit aims to block tougher PFAS standards for water in NH
1 Oct 2019 | GateHouse Media
Chemical company 3M – along with the Plymouth Water & Sewer District, a Center Harbor farmer and a second company – filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Environmental Services seeking to block the implementation of new standards for a series of PFAS chemicals.
Landmark class action over PFAS contamination in Australia announced by Erin Brockovich
29 Sep 2019 | ABC News
It's the largest class action Australia has ever seen — four times larger than the Black Saturday class action of 2009 — and involves people across the country.
Michigan steps closer to PFAS standards for drinking water
28 Sep 2019 | Traverse City Record Eagle
The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team unanimously voted to draft rules founded on the health-based values recommended by a science advisory work group.
Temple researchers will look at link between PFAS and cancer
27 Sep 2019
Researchers at Temple University’s College of Public Health have been awarded a grant to look at potential links between PFAS-contaminated drinking water and cancer as part of a national, federally funded health study. The study will involve seven sites across the country, including Bucks and Montgomery counties in Pennsylvania and Gloucester County in New Jersey.
Drinking water serving 7.5 million Californians contaminated with ‘forever chemicals,’ new report says
27 Sep 2019 | CNN Wire
According to the EWG review of water samples taken between 2013 and 2019, water sources for 74 community water systems -- serving 7.5 million people in California -- have been contaminated with PFAS.
EPA: 3M discharged chemicals without required permit, took years to disclose reporting errors
26 Sep 2019 | WHNT News 19
A U.S. EPA inspection report found high levels of perfluorinated chemicals from discharge sites, noted 3M lacks a state discharge permit for a chemical that it's already been discharging and pointed out 3M waited three years to inform regulators about hundreds of instances of incorrect discharge information it had filed.
Silent Spring Institute awarded $1M to study health impacts of PFAS in drinking water
26 Sep 2019 | The Barnstable Patriot
The team plans to collect blood samples from 1,000 adults and 300 children in two communities in Eastern Massachusetts—Hyannis and Ayer—where public drinking water supplies have been contaminated by PFAS from the use of firefighting foams at nearby fire training areas.
Peters' resolution to phase out PFAS in fire fighting foam passes Senate
25 Sep 2019 | WKZO AM/FM
The unanimously passed resolution is calling for the final National Defense bill sent to the President to include a provision prohibiting the Department of Defense from using firefighting foams containing PFAS by the end of 2023.
Wisconsin residents concerned over PFAS contamination on farm fields
24 Sep 2019 | Wisconsin Public Radio
The meeting, held by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, was the first in a series of six listening sessions on contamination resulting from PFAS. The agency considers the largest source of contamination to have spread from firefighting foam used at Tyco Fire Product's fire training facility.
Trump threatens to veto first ever Congressional Action on ‘forever chemicals’
22 Sep 2019 | Truthout
President Trump has threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act if it contains current amendments that would protect soldiers — and surrounding communities — impacted by the U.S. military’s use of PFAS-laden firefighting foam. Congress has until early October to submit an agreed-upon, merged bill to the president.
3M to halt production of undisclosed chemicals at Decatur plant
19 Sep 2019 | to WHNT News 19
3M indicated in a statement to to WHNT News 19: "we have elected to temporarily idle certain manufacturing processes. We will resume these processes as soon as practicable.”
New California law represents strategic shift in PFAS regulation
19 Sep 2019 | Law 360
A.B. 756 provides the State Water Resources Control Board, a powerful state agency with broad regulatory authority over water quality, the power to force all public water systems to monitor their water supplies for PFAS, and to alert consumers if such chemicals exceed specific levels set by the board.
New science on PFAS chemicals should mobilize our senators
19 Sep 2019 | The Fayetteville Observer
A peer-reviewed study, published this month in the prestigious Chemical Engineeri Journal, found short-chain PFAS chemicals, like GenX, are more widely detected, more persistent, and more mobile than long-chain PFAS chemicals they were designed to replace--such as PFOA and PFOS... This is profound news considering PFAS chemical makers, like Chemours, continue to claim GenX and other short-chain PFAS are safer replacements.