How to stop ‘forever chemicals’ from lasting, well, forever
Long before the Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules this month about “forever chemicals” in drinking water, officials in the state of Vermont knew there was a problem.
Regulators there began looking into PFAS – shorthand for synthetic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – after residents near the town of Bennington complained that their water had been contaminated by a nearby factory, which for decades had produced fiberglass-coated fabrics. That was in 2016. Vermont officials eventually uncovered a public health crisis – which resulted in strict statewide PFAS regulations.
Recently, advocates say, this wake-up has been happening on a broader scale. Across the United States, there has been a wave of grassroots public health
