[CPEO-MEF] "'Forever Chemicals' Disposal Is Creating a Health Nightmare"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

[It’s called “disposal” but the contamination does not disappear. - LS] 

“Forever Chemicals” Disposal Is Creating a Health Nightmare

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility

November 9, 2023
 
New data compiled by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) depicts a growing danger to public health and the environment from a vast, uncontrolled, and spreading web of unregulated disposal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) waste.  

EPA estimates there are more than 14,000 different PFAS, although only roughly 300 are currently being used in commerce. Human exposure to PFAS is associated with cancer, birth defects, developmental damage to infants, and impaired functioning of the liver, kidneys, and immune system. Because PFAS are highly persistent and many are highly mobile, PFAS in waste will often cycle back into the environment, where it will continue to poison the air we breathe and the water we drink.     

The EPA’s data come from the agency’s PFAS Analytical Tools, which collects information from EPA’s electronic manifest system. The PFAS Analytical Tool has information on about 10,344 shipments of almost 27 million kilograms of waste contaminated with PFAS between June 2018 and June 2023. Common disposal methods for these PFAS wastes include incineration, landfilling, mixing with other fuels and burning it, discharging it into wastewater treatment systems, and injecting it underground.  

…

For the entire blog, see

https://peer.org/report-forever-chemical-disposal/

For the full report, see

https://peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PFAS-Transfers-Report-11_9_23-Draft-Final.pdf

—

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

Author: DISTURBING THE WAR: The Inside Story of the Movement to Get Stanford University out of Southeast Asia - 1965–1975 (See http://a3mreunion.org)

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