While those who lead our cities, towns, and public utilities companies continually reassure us that they’re doing us a service and require payment to continue doing so, it is glaringly obvious that most Americans are getting a poor return on their investment.
A new report by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Northeastern University has found that people in 43 states in the United States have access to unhealthy drinking water, contaminated with PFAS chemicals. According to the CDC, those very same chemicals have been linked to major health issues like birth defects, cancer and infertility. “PFAS compounds are a family of thousands of chemicals used in a wide array of consumer and industrial applications” that most of us have in our homes right now—cleaning products, waterproof clothing, nonstick cookware, textiles, grease-resistant food packaging, leather, paper goods, paint and more. One of the most notorious PFAS compounds is PFOA, which was previously used to make DuPont’s Teflon.
Using information compiled from the Pentagon and water utility reports, the researchers have shown that around 19 million people are currently being exposed to contaminated water, with contamination sites ranging from entire public water systems to military bases, airports, industrial plants, garbage dumps and firefighter training sites.
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