Photo via MillerHull.com.
As it turns out Flint, Michigan isn’t the only place suffering from the problem of contaminated water — the problem may be even more widespread than previously thought, according to a new study published on Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters.
While the problem may not be quite as drastic and immediate as the horror story that unfolded in the Great Lakes State, this particular study’s major finding —that over 6 million people in 33 states are being exposed to dangerously high levels of Teflon chemicals in their water supply, is pretty serious in its own right.
The chemicals, also known as perfluorooctanoic acid (or PFOA), are viewed as “extremely dangerous to human health” and have been linked to birth defects and numerous cancers, as well as heart and thyroid disease. The news was reported on by the website EcoWatch.com as well as The Washington Post.
While a large amount of the water supplies of United States regions did not contain detectable levels of the chemicals, a total of 194 out of 4,864, spanning nearly three dozen states, did, affecting over 6 million people. And those who did had at least one water sample test at levels higher than the EPA’s recommended safety limit of 70 parts per trillion, for both PFOAs and PFOS (perfluorooctanesulfonic acid).
Study co-author Dr. Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard School of Public Health is among those concerned.
“…The available water data only reveals the tip of the iceberg of contaminated drinking water,” Grandjean told the Charleston Gazette-Mail.
The Dangers of Teflon
Teflon is known as the “most slippery material in existence,” but its functionality in non-stick pans and other products comes at a serious cost to health and the environment.
“They never break down. Once they are released into the environment, they are there,” said Xindi Hu to the Post, adding that virtually all Americans are exposed to these compounds. Hu is the lead author on the study and a doctoral student from the Harvard Department of Environmental Health.
As disconcerting as the tests results were, the study notes another frustrating truth about Teflon chemicals: “exposure to these chemicals can make people sick, even at or below the concentration recommended as acceptable under the EPA health advisory.”
Grandjean elaborated in comments to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, saying that the EPA advisory limit is “much too high to protect us from the toxic effects on the immune system.”
The scenario is eerily similar to what has unfolded with the EPA and glyphosate, the active chemical in Monsanto’s Roundup. The EPA has raised raised the “safe” limits of the chemical numerous times in order to placate chemical companies (and the farmers who use their products) over time while the public remains blissfully unaware and uninformed by the mainstream media.
Teflon is produced most notably by DuPont, a chemical and GMO seed giant that has manufactured it for decades, polluting public water supplies even while knowing the harm it’s capable of inflicting on human health and the environment.
Thousands of personal injury cases are now pending against the company in the Ohio River Valley area after a cattle rancher named Wilbur Tennant sued the company in 1998 over the deaths of nearly 300 cattle, many of which were found with “neon green organs” in their bodies.
For more information on the study, check out this round up of news reports from the website EcoWatch.com.
