US Invests 6 Billion Dollars in Clean Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure
PFAS and Politics: A Tale of Corporate Interests vs. Public Health
American politics are fascinating to follow, especially when politicians in the land of the free claim to have the authority to decide on your personal health and thus limit your freedom to make choices about your own body. At state and federal levels, examples in the news from the past 24 hours expose which party in the US cares most about its citizens and which party cares most about its corporate donors.
House Bill 1399 was discussed in Indiana but has yet to be voted on. For those of you who remember numbers to a level that it becomes burdensome, this is not HB1399, which was voted out of the Texas House Public Health Committee three years ago. That bill would ban essential, life-saving medical care for transgender youth against the guidance of every major medical association. Still, it's an interesting coincidence when speaking about the differences between the two main political parties in the US. Guess who was proposing this unconstitutional bill, and which party came to the defense of individuals' right to life-saving medical care?
Indiana's HB1399 is aimed to redefine approximately 5,000 PFAS as safe, allowing the chemical industry to even label their PFAS-containing products as "PFAS free." This proposal is solely aimed at protecting corporations and has nothing to do with the safety of citizens. Indiana is also the state where 70% of expecting moms have toxic weed killers in their urine.
You know which party has proposed this bill, right? Right.
PFAS is an umbrella term for a family of more than ten thousand chemicals known for their indestructible and non-stick properties. They are often called "forever chemicals" because they break down extremely slowly, if ever.
These chemicals are used in a massive range of consumer products, and you have likely been using some of these today; you find PFAS in waterproof clothing, furniture, cookware, or electronics. You also see these chemicals in food packaging, such as paper bags for french fries, wrappers for hamburgers, molded fiber salad bowls, and single-use paper plates.
Combine these characteristics of lasting forever and their wide use in consumer products, and you realize that these chemicals reach the environment and, ultimately, your body. Consumer Reports gave an example last year from Maine, where "wastewater sludge from food packaging mills has reportedly been used to fertilize fields where cattle graze. In 2020, the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry tested milk from dairy farms and found levels of one particular PFAS in a sample from a farm that was more than 150 times higher than state regulations permit."
Research on various PFAS has found links to liver damage and kidney disease. Exposure to the often-mentioned and well-researched PFAS known as PFOA has shown probable links with thyroid disease, higher cholesterol levels, kidney and testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, and pregnancy-induced hypertension. Children with higher blood levels of PFAS have more infections and experience less effective protection after being vaccinated.
So, while the MAGA-controlled Conservatives aim to enhance the freedom of companies at the cost of the health of those who voted them into power, I'm happy to report on positive news at the other end of the political spectrum which shows what policies look like when they give a higher priority to the people's interest.
Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan announced $5.8 billion in funding for clean water infrastructure from President Biden's Investing in America agenda.
The current US government envisions a future with access to clean, safe water for every child and family. Today's announcement is part of the Infrastructure Law that will invest over $50 billion to upgrade America's water infrastructure, representing the largest investment in clean water in American history.
The numbers prove how much needed this investment is: more than two million people in the US live without running water, tens of millions more lack access to safe and reliable drinking water and sanitation, and over nine million homes, daycares, and businesses receive their water through a toxic lead pipe.
The funding includes projects to remove PFAS contamination in water. The Infrastructure Law has already led to the launch of more than 1,300 drinking water and wastewater projects across the US.
So, instead of proposing to change the definition of PFAS and thus allowing the chemical industry to print "PFAS free" on labels of products that contain these toxic chemicals, the Democrats favor tackling the problem and putting the interest of the people first.
Your vote in November matters for many reasons. Voting for a leader who cares about you, your children's future, your health, and a continuation of the democratic principles that form the foundation of the US is a privilege that most people in the world don't have. The world watches you because your vote will also impact our future and security. And voting for democracy gives you clean water and better health as a bonus; it sounds like a good deal.
I write this newsletter because I believe we can do better on this beautiful but fragile planet if we work together.
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Notes:
Thank you for writing about forever chemicals—a highly unreported topic!! Last year we at Project Censored selected “Forever Chemicals” in Rainwater a Global Threat to Human Health" as one of the Top unreported stories of 2023 for our annual publication, State of the Free Press.
https://www.projectcensored.org/forever-chemicals-rainwater-threat-health/
Thank you for this, Alexander! Voting Democrat certainly gets you closer to living in a democracy.
I love water. The issue of clean water is of great interest. Many years ago I purchased a portable filtration system because of what comes from our faucets. Filtered water alone is what I drink and use for cooking. My pets drink filtered water. A parrot was once part of my life and I learned non-stick cookware used at high temperature released a gas which could kill a bird. My friends and I go to restaurants with vegan and organic options and some have their own gardens. We have to be our own advocates. My progressive mayor is working on a plan to remove all lead pipes hopefully without eliminating all the heritage trees.