PNN - Exiles from Justice (6/24/18)
PNN- Exiles from Justice - from border to border from the country side to the heart of the city
PNN Welcomes two marvelous guests who treat of Justice and inJustice from the RIO GRANDE to Pennsylvania.
Courtney Horne a Technologist and System analyst discusses the issues facing America's search for Justice.
Veverly Gary Attorney and ACLU Chapter Chair from the Treasure Coast Chapter discusses her perspective on the problems in Florida and makes suggestions on how we might improve the Justice available to all peoples in Florida Black, Brown and beige.
Brook Hines brings us her insight from the campaign trail and beyond. Also bring Fred Barr.
Host and producer Rick Spisak discusses the danger of the presidents attack on the DIAPER DESPERADOES.
TUNE IN Live Sunday 7pm East / 6pm Central / 4pm Pacific
PNN - Listen Now
LETS LOOK AT SOME OTHER ISSUES of the Day:
* Science in Exile
* Plans to reduce Social Security
* Plans to allow more pollution in our air and water
* Plans to house more immigrants on Military bases
* Continued increases in suicides in the general population
* PLANS further our breaks with our allies in Europe and Canada
* The Terrible costs of the Trade War
* The Increases in deficits by the debt mesmerized republicans
* Dumpfster launches a trial balloon to dispense with hearings for asylum seekers?
* These immigrants are animals, the democrats care more about MS 13 than about Americans
* Its up to Congress LEGISLATION is the only Selection,
then TRUMPTATION undercuts Congressional Action
Report: Up to 110 Million Americans Could Have PFAS-Contaminated Drinking Water
PFAS Tap Water Data Was Funded By Taxpayers But Kept Secret
Are PFAS chemicals in my water?
The EPA has not compiled and released all the information on PFAS contamination. You can use EWG’s Tap Water Database to search your zip code and learn if you rely on one of the approximately 200 water systems with contamination levels above the EPA’s reporting limit. But keep in mind, the EPA’s reporting limit is higher than a health-protective level. The EPA or the labs that did the water analysis have either discarded or are withholding the results of tests that indicate contamination, but are below the EPA reporting limits, so some data is NOT reflected in EWG’s Tap Water Database. Join EWG in calling on the EPA to release ALL the data..
What can I do if PFAS chemicals are found in my water?
To reduce or eliminate PFAS chemicals from your water, use either a reverse osmosis or activated carbon filter. Activated carbon filters will be less effective at removing the shorter chain replacement PFAS chemicals, but we don't know the extent of water contamination from replacement chemicals. You can access our water filter guide here.
Take action
It is outrageous that the public does not know the extent of PFAS contamination of drinking water. Stand with EWG and demand that the EPA immediately collects contamination data and releases it to the public.
More than 1,500 drinking water systems across the country may be contaminated with the nonstick chemicals PFOA and PFOS, and similar fluorine-based chemicals, a new EWG analysis shows. This groundbreaking finding comes the same day the Environmental Protection Agency is convening a summit to address PFAS chemicals – a class of toxic chemicals that includes PFOA and PFOS, and that are linked to cancer, thyroid disease, weakened immunity and other health problems.
From 2013 to 2015, the EPA mandated national testing for PFAS chemicals in public water systems, yet the full results of this testing, funded by taxpayers, were never made public. Water utilities with the highest concentrations of PFAS chemicals have been publicly identified. But the names of utilities with detectable PFAS contamination below the so-called reporting levels of 10 to 90 parts per trillion, or ppt, were not released. Millions of people were not informed that their water supply is contaminated with these chemicals.
The additional water systems with PFAS contamination likely serve tens of millions of people, and it is essential for people in those communities to be informed of this hazard. Eurofins Eaton Analytical, which analyzed a third of the nationwide water samples, found that 28 percent of the water utilities it tested contained PFAS chemicals at concentrations at or above 5 ppt. The percentage of samples with PFAS detections nearly doubled when the laboratory analyzed down to 2.5 ppt. Based on this data, EWG’s analysis suggests that up to 110 million Americans could have PFAS in their water.
This new research greatly exceeds EWG’s previous estimate of 16 million Americans being exposed to PFAS-contaminated water, as reported in the EWG’s national Tap Water Database.
Independent scientific assessments find that the safe level of exposure to PFAS chemicals is about 1 ppt – significantly below the reporting level set by the EPA.
Just over a week ago, Inside EPA and Politico broke news that the White House and the EPA attempted to bury a proposal from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry that suggested exposure to Teflon and Scotchgard chemicals may be harmful at levels 10 times lower than what the EPA has publicly called safe. The full ATSDR proposal has not been made public, but the available information indicates the lower level was proposed because ATSDR accounted for harm to the immune system. This mirrors the more health protective approach New Jersey took in drafting its drinking water limits of 13 ppt for PFOS and 14 ppt for PFOA.
The full implications a lower safe exposure level would have are uncertain because the extent of national drinking water contamination is unknown. The uncertainty is largely due to the reporting value the EPA has previously used. PFAS detections below the reporting limits were kept secret, and may have never been recorded.
Today’s EPA summit on the PFAS contamination crisis carries no indication that the agency will take action. In fact, the public might expect the opposite result, given internal EPA emails showing that top aides to Administrator Scott Pruitt and White House officials attempted to suppress the ATSDR proposal, worrying the release of the study would be “a public relations nightmare” for the Trump administration.
EWG calls on the EPA, testing laboratories and drinking water utilities across that country that have PFAS testing results to make the information public immediately. Knowing the locations and extent of contamination is critical for cleaning up water supplies and making the case for regulation.
Secret PFAS contamination data
In the water testing mandated by the EPA under the third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, or UCMR, 198 different water utilities had recorded detections of PFAS chemicals in amounts above the EPA reporting limit. But the reporting limits were very high, using 40 ppt for PFOS and 20 ppt for PFOA, though many labs have much more sensitive detection limits. Some analytical labs are able to detect amounts as small 2 ppt of PFAS chemicals in water.
Based on a reanalysis of the national dataset by Eurofins Eaton Analytical, a water testing lab that processed more than 30 percent of nationwide water samples, EWG estimated how many utilities would likely have contaminated water if the reporting values had been set lower. At a reporting limit of 5 ppt, an estimated 1,046 utilities could have tested positive. If all results down to 2.5 ppt were reported, we estimate that over 1,900 of the 4,920 water utilities tested in the United States would have reported contamination.
Using maps generated by Eurofins Eaton Analytical and the public UCMR results, we calculated the number of water utilities that the lab identified as having PFOA or PFOS in their water, without results being reported to the EPA. Some states such as New Jersey have done additionally water testing and have likely identified some, if not all, of the utilities that have PFAS chemicals in their water.
https://www.ewg.org/research/report-110-million-americans-could-have-pfas-contaminated-drinking-water#.WzASn_ZFyUl
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