pfas

Hundreds of Thousands More U.S. Service Members Exposed to Toxic Forever Chemicals Than DOD Acknowledges, Report Finds

Hundreds of Thousands More U.S. Service Members Exposed to Toxic Forever Chemicals Than DOD Acknowledges, Report Finds

The Department of Defense (DOD) has underestimated how many U.S. service members were exposed to potentially unsafe levels of forever chemicals in the drinking water served on military installations, a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has found. While the DOD put the number of exposed service members at 175,000 a year at […]

Join our newsletter

The best of EcoWatch, right in your inbox. Sign up for our email newsletter!

    Boston Bans Astro Turf, Which Is Linked to Forever Chemicals

    Boston Bans Astro Turf, Which Is Linked to Forever Chemicals

    Boston has become the largest municipality in the U.S. to ban astro turf in city parks.  The reason? The artificial grass is made with the toxic forever chemicals known as per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are linked to a host of negative health effects from cancer to immune suppression to reproductive problems. “The city has a […]

    Umbilical Cord Blood Tests Reveal Widespread PFAS Contamination

    Umbilical Cord Blood Tests Reveal Widespread PFAS Contamination

    Five years of research, more than 40 studies, and over 30,000 samples reveal per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also called “forever chemicals,” are present in umbilical cord blood. Further, many of the studies linked PFAS in umbilical cord blood with health issues of the fetus during the parent’s pregnancy, in childhood, and as adults. “Even before […]

    States Seek to Use PFAS-Contaminated Sewage Sludge to Fertilize Crops

    States Seek to Use PFAS-Contaminated Sewage Sludge to Fertilize Crops

    Some states in the U.S. are giving the go-ahead for the use of sewage sludge as a crop fertilizer with little to no testing, despite the sludge being contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals. While only two states, Michigan and Maine, are currently testing for PFAS contamination in the […]

    EPA Proposes Regulating Two Common ‘Forever Chemicals’ Under Superfund Law

    EPA Proposes Regulating Two Common ‘Forever Chemicals’ Under Superfund Law

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a major step on Friday towards regulating the toxic substances known as “forever chemicals” for their tendency to persist in the environment and the human body.  The agency announced a proposal to list two of the most common per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as hazardous substances under the […]

    How to Destroy a ‘Forever Chemical’ – Scientists Are Discovering (Slowly) Ways to Eliminate PFAS

    How to Destroy a ‘Forever Chemical’ – Scientists Are Discovering (Slowly) Ways to Eliminate PFAS

    By A. Daniel Jones and Hui Li PFAS chemicals seemed like a good idea at first. As Teflon, they made pots easier to clean starting in the 1940s. They made jackets waterproof and carpets stain-resistant. Food wrappers, firefighting foam, even makeup seemed better with perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Then tests started detecting PFAS in people’s […]