An article by Tom Perkins of The Guardian called “New ‘forever chemicals’ polluting water near North Carolina plant, study finds,” provides an update on the discovery of PFAS chemicals in the state.
The subtitle tells more of the story “Researchers say discovery of at least 11 new kinds of PFAS in water near Chemours plant indicates more contamination than thought.” Here are a few paragraphs to give you the gist.
“At least 11 new kinds of PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ are polluting the water around a North Carolina Chemours plant that manufactures the toxic substances, new research finds.
The discovery, made by researchers using a novel testing method, is evidence that the environment around the plant is more contaminated with PFAS than regulators have found, the researchers said.
This means there are a lot more PFAS that people are being exposed to than they know,’ said Erin Baker, a University of North Carolina PFAS researcher who co-authored the peer-reviewed paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science. ‘That’s because [regulators’ testing] is missing the PFAS because no one knows how to target them.’”
I have written or cited several articles on these PFAS chemicals that do so much harm to people and livestock. The movie “Dark Waters” starring Mark Ruffalo is an excellent microcosm of what happened when leakage from a DuPont Teflon plant poisoned thousands of people surrounding the plant, as well as their own workers.
DuPont also was punished for covering up their mess and reneging on an arbitrated settlement when significant data showed a causal relationship between people harmed and plant runoff. When they reneged, they lost three successive individual lawsuits for increasing amounts before they settled the rest. What annoyed me about DuPont is every time they had a chance to do the right thing, they failed. Reneging on an arbitration agreement made the statement “our word is useless” as they were proven to be at fault.
This stuff is harmful. It also remains in people once there. If you live close to a plant that uses this stuff, move if you can.
musingsofanoldfart 
The problem is, move where? Where are there national maps for pollution? How does the consumer know — how can the consumer know — if they are moving from one disaster to another?
Vic, that is a good question. Definitely, not around manufacturing plants. Have you read any of Dr. Sandra Steingraber’s books? Two in particular are “Living downstream” and “Raising Elijah.” She is a biologist, ecologist and bladder cancer survivor. She has also spoken in front of Congress and the European Parliament. Her books are rather illuminating. Keith
Have not read, but will.
Note to Readers: I am of a mind that when leadership knows of problems that could be illegal or harmful, the failure to remedy such is a second sin. Yet, too many companies hope to hide a problem to save their brand image, but end up doing worse damage when discovered. The organizations that fail this directive include, but are definitely not limited to: The Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention, Volkswagen, Toyota, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Pacific Gas and Electric, Duke Energy, Universities (Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan State, Michigan), US Marine Corp, and other organizations in youth sports, cheerleading, etc.
On the flip side, I remember how Johnson and Johnson handled the Tylenol scare where a nefarious person was opening pill bottles and poisoning them with cyanide in store aisles. They acted quickly pulling product and introduced the tamper proof seal which had to be broken to get at the product.
PS – We should not forget Richard Nixon’s second sin is what did him in – the cover-up of his conducting a burglary ring from the White House. When it came out he taped all conversations, he was done for.
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Many thanks for the reblog.