This commentary is by Marguerite Adelman of Winooski, coordinator of the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition, a project of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. She is a board member of the League of Women Voters of Vermont.
A new study by researchers at Duke University and the Environmental Working Group looked at PFAS levels found in freshwater-caught fish in the U.S. between 2013 and 2015. Their conclusion: Eating one fish from U.S. lakes or rivers is equivalent to drinking a month’s worth of contaminated water.Â
PFAS are associated with higher risk of multiple cancers, reproductive damage, endocrine disruption, and decreased vaccine response.
Here in Vermont, a smallmouth bass caught in the Winooski River tested at 14,000 parts per trillion of PFOS, a rainbow trout caught in the White River tested at 17,000 ppt of PFOS, and a smallmouth bass caught in the Connecticut River tested at 12,228 ppt of five forms of PFAS.
The Vermont drinking and surface water standard for PFAS is 20 ppt of five regulated forms of PFAS; which means there are over 9,000 forms of this manmade “forever” chemical that are not regulated.
The EPA has just changed its lifetime advisory for PFOA and PFOS, two common forms of PFAS, from 70 ppt to 0.004 ppt and 0.02 ppt, respectively. Our current certified lab tests don’t measure PFAS below 2 ppt.
The Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition is urging Vermont legislators and agencies to take the environmental threat posed by PFAS and other environmental toxins much more seriously. As evidenced by the newly passed Vermont Agency of Agriculture Revised Rules on Pesticides, our state agencies are not collaborating to protect our environment and public health.
The Revised Pesticide Rules, the first revision in 31 years, do not address PFAS in pesticides, nor do they call for the continued limiting use of pesticides in Vermont. The Vermont Department of Health is not doing much about the 54-plus towns with PFAS in their public water supplies or the homeowners with private wells that should be tested for PFAS.
The Agency of Natural Resources is still using mixing and wastewater management zones to dilute toxins in our lakes and rivers and issuing numerous discharge permits at alarming rates because our infrastructure can’t handle common rain showers.
Vermont Fish & Wildlife is encouraging us to eat the fish we catch in our rivers and lakes because they are good for us and our health.
The PFAS bioaccumulates in fish (and people) over time; the tested fish in the Environmental Working Group study were caught a number of years ago. PFAS continues to be dumped into our lakes and rivers and doesn’t biodegrade.
We are looking at the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of PFAS contamination.
Here are five actions that will be effective:
- PFAS in drinking water: Amend Act 21 to include no PFOA and PFOS in water (we can’t test as low as the EPA lifetime advisory recommends anyway) and add all testable PFAS to the list. For all testable PFAS, except PFOA and PFOS, the total limit should be no more than 20 parts per trillion. Of course, the best solution is to ban PFAS in drinking water altogether.
- Pesticides and PFAS: Mandate the reduction of pesticide use in
- Vermont, as well as testing pesticides for PFAS (in the container and in the product). Ban any pesticides that contain PFAS from use in our state.
- PFAS in landfills and leachate: Fund a committee/study on solid waste disposal in Vermont that presents a long-term plan to address solid waste management and leachate. The state needs to take ownership of solid waste instead of leaving it up to a business monopoly to regulate itself.
- Precautionary Principle: Pass legislation that requires state agencies and legislators to utilize the Precautionary Principle before enacting rules and legislation.
- State purchases: Mandate that state agencies and offices purchase PFAS- and toxin-free products (as have Michigan and the federal government). Leverage state money to get companies to phase out these toxins.
We need a paradigm shift where our government cares more about people and planet than profit. We need our citizenry to move away from consumerism toward buying fewer products and only purchasing those products that protect our health and environment.
What we do to our Earth, we are doing to ourselves and to future generations.