EVERY CRISIS BRINGS A GROWTH OPPORTUNITY.
WITH PFAS EVERYONE CAN DISCOVER A NEW MOLECULAR LEVEL OF AWARENESS ABOUT ECOSYSTEMS AND OUR BODIES.
TOILETS NEED TO KEEP FLUSHING
UNLIKE COVID, PFAS is not currently sending thousands of people to the hospital. As far as we know! Should we get tested? There are 'safe' and 'unsafe' levels for the human body, but once you get those PFAS molecules in your body fat, there's no getting rid of them. Maybe it's better not to know. At least it's not contagious!
You can get a blood test, but what's the point? No agency is suggesting to get the test, so it looks like the plan is education and awareness. Sometimes it takes a dire threat to get people's attention, so thanks 3M, thanks DuPont.
Here is a website gives that gives a snapshot about PFAS testing, at least from 2 years ago. Not much has changed. The potential health effects are serious, which is what drives the conversation statewide in Wisconsin, and globally, since the PFAS molecule shows up literally everywhere.
With COVID you could avoid crowds and get a vaccine. Not so with PFAS. The pandemic came and went. Many people got COVID, and still continue to get it. Many died, many more pulled through just fine and many continue to suffer from "long COVID". But it's not a forever-virus, it can be killed. With COVID we took action, quarantines and vaccines, but with perfluoralkyls we just have to find ways to sweep them out of the way of young children, even as its supply chain continues and citizens have to decide how to respond, if they respond at all.
There are positive signs for getting rid of PFAS in water and soil with technology and bioremdiation (including hemp). But getting it out of your body? No, it's there to stay, and it will likely remain in the environment forever. The best hope is to contain, manage, remediate and look for therapies to minimize the health effects. In the meantime, let's be grateful for the abundance of clean water and build the community to protect it. There are places on earth with far worse pollution. Compared to them we have it pretty good.
Blaming someone for the problem is easy, but PFAS is our mess and we have to deal with it. Although we can definitely blame the FDA, whose mission is to keep citizens safe from PFAS. If I could sue them I would. No, their concern is the dangerous molecule THC, found in marijuana. They are seeking to keep THC out of hemp animal feed, even as the same animals are fed antibiotics, hormones and are grazing the grass contaminated by dioxin and mercury from coal-fired power plants.
These are deep realizations about how limited and ineffective government can be. Is it corruption or incompetence? Maybe both. We have to accept the PFAS reality and look on the bright side, maybe it could be an opportunity for greater awareness of the environment, and finding a unified cause for our country, for our species.
Rachel Carson was warning the world back about exactly this, back in 1962 with her book Silent Spring. She was the arch-enemy of the petrochemical industry, now we know why.
Unlike 3M or DuPont, food packaging industries are switching to PFAS-free materials, while being transparent to preserve their brand integrity and legal standing. Other industries are bringing forward remediation and filtration technologies. In terms of stopping the flow of PFAS and for cleaning up drinking water and soils, there are reasons to be optimistic.
In Wisconsin, citizen response to PFAS is in the planning stages. This time we're all still figuring it out, so citizens need to organize, especially teenagers and young adults.
Organizing is a problem in some local communities however, where misinformation and political mentalities sometimes prevent basic discussions about water engineering. Social media posts can spread "ideas" that get citizens and council members in an uproar, especially when there is a vacuum of information. Lawsuits get filed. According to our friends in the Wisconsin Rural Water Association, there is a great need for both science and civil behavior.
When it really hits the fan is when the toilet stops working.