For many families who have grown up near military bases, it is not uncommon to battle health issues such as cancers, kidney disease, and autoimmune disease. These stories are shared in a February expose in The Intercept, which sheds light on how we have arrived at a point where civilian wells and water sources for countless wildlife are contaminated by fluorinated chemicals that will never break down.
Aqueous film-forming foams are used by the U.S. military to both battle fires and practice scenarios in preparation for the real thing. Used on hundreds of bases around the country and countless sites around the world, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) have seeped into waters and found their way into the bodies of humans, animals, and distant ecosystems. While much attention has been given to PFOA and PFOS, as many as 500 to 700 compounds have been used at sites where the foam has been used.
A growing body of research links these chemicals to additional health problems such as reproductive and hormonal dysfunction, leading the director of the Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Environmental Health to call the situation a “seminal public health challenge.”
Recently, the U.S. military is shifting towards adopting foams with shorter chain PFASs but researchers are finding that these are not necessarily safer. In fact, shorter chain PFAS molecules are actually more challenging to remove from water. Given the ubiquitous nature of this class of chemicals, this in-depth piece is worth reading to fully understand the politics and economics behind our current challenge with PFASs.
[Source: The Intercept]