Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #ForeverChemicals

Most recents (8)

1/ Last month, NYC launched its first curbside #composting effort in Queens, with the goal of expanding across the city to keep the 8M pounds of residential #FoodWaste generated daily from rotting in #landfills and createing #climate damaging emissions. buff.ly/40Mmyqu
2/ After the food scraps are collected, they’re sent to one of two #AnerobicDigestion facilities, where bacteria break down #organic materials in the absence of oxygen to creates a mixture of gases – or #biogas, which can be burned to produce #energy.
3/ But, as @LFO has made clear, #AnerobicDigestion can get tricky. Particularly when #FoodScraps are sent to the #digesters at wastewater treatment plants, which are used to reduce the volume of #SewageSludge. This is happening in NYC. buff.ly/3HNF4s4
Read 10 tweets
New Health Advisories for 4 #PFAS announced today and they are VERY low
#PFOA: 4 parts per *quadrillion*
#PFOS: 20 parts per *quadrillion*
#GenX: 10 ppt
#PFBS: 2000 ppt

This is a huge deal

#ForeverChemicals | @ewg | ewg.org/news-insights/…
That means #PFAS are toxic in minuscule amounts. Ppq is a tiny, tiny unit of measurement. WA state explained in 2018, "Lay a penny on the ground and compare it — by area — to the entire state of Washington. That is equal to one part per quadrillion." ecology.wa.gov/Blog/Posts/Mar…
Wikipedia describes it another way:
One part per quadrillion (ppq) denotes one part per 1,000,000,000,000,000 (1015) parts, and a value of 10−15. This is equivalent to about two and a half minutes out of the age of the Earth (4.5 billion years) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parts-per…
Read 7 tweets
Congress has introduced dozens of bills. Litigation is growing. And federal officials are getting serious about cleanup.

Now, so-called forever chemicals that inhabit the blood of nearly every American are getting lobbyists' attention. benvgo.com/5OUUyP3
#PFAS chemicals have invaded the U.S. water supply, thanks mostly to discharges from manufacturers and the military's use of firefighting foam

Utilities are concerned about being stuck with major expenses, while many states are writing their own guidance or legislation on PFAS.
The boom in legislation has sparked a major increase in lobbying. In 2017, only four entities mentioned the issue in government lobbying reports. In 2018, the number grew to 35, and by 2019, it rocketed to 164. Image
Read 5 tweets
Robert Mueller’s testimony isn’t the only important event happening Wednesday. The House is holding hearings on industry’s Big Tobacco-style campaign to suppress data on the health effects of #PFAS. Bucky Bailey (pictured below) is the first witness. images.app.goo.gl/M4TofNt2NZPGNK…? 1/
Bucky is not the only American touched by #PFAS. More than 99% of us have #PFAS—chemicals linked to cancer, thyroid disease, immune suppression, reduced penis size, low birth weight—in our blood. Also some of these health effects occur at general-population levels of exposure. 2/
But Bucky’s story is particularly illuminating when it comes to certain chemical giants’ willingness to put profits above the wellbeing of ordinary people. Bucky’s mother, Sue, worked at a DuPont plant in WV, which manufactures Teflon, using PFOA (part of the PFAS family). 3/
Read 14 tweets
Soon, the House will consider adding #PFAS to the hazardous substance list under #Superfund. Here’s why that matters.

A THREAD.

(you can also read my blog on the subject)
ewg.org/news-and-analy…
#PFAS are a group of chemicals that have been used for decades in a wide variety of industrial, consumer, and military applications. @EWG’s contamination map (updated today!) has identified over 700 sites where PFAS has been detected.
ewg.org/interactive-ma…
@ewg #PFAS chemicals are largely unregulated and there are very few reporting requirements, so no one really knows everywhere where #PFAS have been released. Currently there are no federal limits on how much PFAS can be released into air or water or where it can be disposed.
Read 20 tweets
The epicenter of yesterday’s #earthquake was near California’s China Lake Air Naval Station, the groundwater beneath which is contaminated with one of the highest levels of toxic #ForeverChemicals (#PFAS) ever detected in the US, if not the world. 1/ mcclatchydc.com/latest-news/ar…
Specifically, the groundwater beneath China Lake station contains 8 million ppt #PFAS, 114,000 times higher than the @EPA’s safety guidelines for some #PFAS drinking water. My question is this: How will the seismic activity affect the movement of groundwater? 2/
Is anyone investigating whether the quakes are causing groundwater highly polluted with #PFAS—chemicals linked to cancer, thyroid disease, low birth weight, immune suppression, reduced penis size, and lower sperm count—to migrate into aquifers & wells supplying drinking water? 3/
Read 3 tweets
For those studying, tracking #PFAS pollution, what @j_g_allen has called the #foreverchemicals -- I wanted to offer some key resources about the relationship btwn the atom bomb and their early research & development w/ the Manhattan Project. An #envhist thread.

#PFOA #Teflon
2. In 1947, the Manhattan District wrote up the history of their fluorocarbon work in support of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge: see Vol I Book VII, since declassified and w/ the US DoE. Appendix G explains the fluorocarbon and Teflon work:
osti.gov/includes/openn…
3. Joseph H. Simons, who's eponymous process, The Simons Process, was used by 3M to make #PFASs, did some of the original research on fluorocarbons that catalyzed the Manhattan Project's development work, tho' his process wasn't used in the bomb project). Here, in the @nytimes:
Read 18 tweets

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