this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024
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note: clickbait sources/headlines aren't liked generally. I've posted crap sources and later deleted or edit to improve after complaints. whoops, sry
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They do leave the body over time, but the half life is very long, like 3-10 years depending on the specific one.
Blood levels of many of them have fallen a lot since the year 2000ish as some were phased out, though of course there's dangers of more being made.
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/health-effects/us-population.html
There's also new rules going in effect 2025 to require them to be removed from tap water if present, using a different process called ion exchange. The method described in the article is a way of destroying them once they're removed, so a way to treat high pfa level waste basically.
https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/health-effects/us-population.html
Horrible how multiple companies like 3M and Dupont were covering up their dangers for years. $10 billion doesn't seem like nearly enough in damages.
https://time.com/6289893/3m-forever-chemical-pfas-settlement/
Especially when the costs of keeping it out of affected drinking water systems alone is expected to be $1.5 billion, per year.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/04/10/1243775736/epa-pfas-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-limits
Yeah, it absolutely astounds me that they polluted the entire world and poisoned everyone and everything within it, and then the people are footing the bill for trying to cleaning it up. And that's only our drinking water, not all the plants and animals we eat all the time that have it in them in probably huge amounts. AFAIK there is no plan for that at all so our cells will still be swimming in them.
3M and others should be taken over by the government and turned into nonprofits where 100% of their profit goes to cleaning up the world.
So, uh, you weren't around for regular (leaded) gasoline? We humans are slowly figuring shit out. Given that we took a couple hundred thousand years to get past stone tools, and given what we've achieved in the last 100, we're doing sorta OK. Wish I could see the world in 200-300 years.
I get that there are lessons learned for new advances in technology and society, but companies like DuPont and 3M knew about this and hid it. Then when legislation comes out banning chemicals they use, they change basically one atom in the molecule to avoid the regulation and keep going. They aren't honest mistakes.
Well there will be way fewer people.