Federal Agencies Plan to Investigate Links between PFAS Exposure and Viral Illness

Two federal health agencies are planning to investigate potential links between exposure to toxic PFAS chemicals and susceptibility to viral illnesses like Covid-19.

The study would build on federally funded investigations of PFAS exposure in nine communities near U.S. military bases where the chemicals were found in drinking water. Researchers hope to enroll 4,075 people from those previous investigations in the new assessment.

A collaboration between the National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the study will be based on health questionnaires sent to people who have already had blood samples drawn for the PFAS exposure assessments.

HotSpots H2O: Indigenous Environmental Activist Shot and Killed in Honduras

The environmental activist Carlos Cerros was killed in Honduras, in the town of Nueva Granada, at the end of March, local media reported. 

Cerros, a member of the Indigenous Lenca people of Central America, was shot dead on the street in front of his children. The 41-year-old was the president of United Communities, a local group protesting against the El Tornillito hydroelectric dam project on the Ulúa River in western Honduras. His death is the latest in a string of attacks in recent years against environmentalists in Latin America. 

Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for land and environment defenders, according to data published by the advocacy organization Global Witness. Since Global Witness began recording data in 2012, more environmental murders have occurred in Latin America than any other region.

What’s Up With Water – April 5, 2021

Featured coverage from this week’s episode of What’s Up With Water looks at:

• In Greenland, a special election could settle a growing dispute over the environmental impacts of a major mining project.
• In science news, an international research team has shed some light on an overlooked source of pollution in marine waters.
• In the United States, a massive coastal restoration project in Louisiana has received a mostly positive review from the federal government. The coastal land building project has a price tag of $1.5 billion.

This week, Circle of Blue reports on President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan and what’s in it for water.

Perfluorinated Chemicals Health Study Included in Congress Budget Deal

House and Senate negotiators secured $10 million in the fiscal year 2018 budget for a study of people on military bases who were exposed to perfluorinated chemicals, also known as PFAS.

The study is a tiny slice of the $1.3 trillion federal budget. But it is an essential first step in linking health problems that veterans and their families now experience to chemicals they may have been exposed to while serving.

PFAS chemicals were prevalent on military bases in the foams used to fight petroleum fires that could result from a plane crash. At fire training sites and elsewhere on the bases the foams were deployed in weekly exercises, often spread or washed onto the ground. Over time the chemicals leached into groundwater and contaminated wells that provided drinking water to some bases. The Defense Department has identified 393 bases where the chemicals were released to the environment.

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