Meanwhile, “environmentalists” are still talking about cow farts.
Hundreds of animal species across the globe from ticks to whales have blood contaminated with toxic PFAS, a new analysis of previous peer-reviewed research shows.
Though the analysis does not aim to reveal how the exposure to PFAS affects wildlife, anecdotal evidence in some of the previous studies show the chemicals are likely sickening animals.
The analysis was compiled by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit that tracks PFAS contamination and developed an interactive map that shows which animal species were studied, where they were analyzed, and the levels and types of PFAS found in their blood.
Researchers have found the chemicals in a range of species such as scorpions, pandas, Siberian tigers, turtles, horses, dogs, plankton, sea lions, wild boar, otters and oysters. The breadth of the contamination is “sobering”, said David Andrews, a senior scientist with the EWG.
“It has taken six decades of research on humans to really understand how these chemicals impact our biology in so many different ways … and there’s no reason to believe those same impacts are not also occurring in wildlife,” Andrews said.
PFAS are a class of about 12,000 chemicals often used to make thousands of consumer products resistant to water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and they are linked to cancer, liver disease, kidney stress, fetal complications and other serious health problems.
Federal data shows that nearly all Americans’ blood is contaminated with the compounds, but research on wildlife has been scattered until the EWG analysis aggregated it.
This is a real problem.
Furthermore, it’s a problem you could actually solve. But no one would make any money solving it.
So the government and media will continue promoting that bullshit about cow farts.