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3M Company Credit: Wikipedia

Forever chemicals are in the news all the time now. A very interesting and well-researched article was recently published by the investigative journalism site ProPublica about Kris Hansen, a chemistry PhD who worked at 3M company. Initially, as part of her job in 1997, she documented that forever chemicals (PFOS, PFAS) were showing up in everyone's blood - both workers at the company, as well as people outside the company. Animals also. But then her work was suppressed, her bosses at 3M convinced her the chemicals were safe, and she continued working there for years.

Also... she was sidelined by her bosses after her initial findings, her job became more limited at the company, and finally she moved to a different area of the company (medical devices). Yet for years she told her husband and herself that the chemicals were safe. Only in 2021, after watching a John Oliver segment on TV about forever chemicals, she finally googled PFOS. But she only left the company in 2022 (after 26 years) when her job was eliminated.

One interesting part to me was - How did she rationalize doing nothing and continue working there for decades? She knew it was appearing in everyone's blood, there was research (animal and human) available showing it caused harms, and yet.... she chose to believe what management was saying (it's safe), stayed silent, and basically buried her head in the sand. Didn't want to know...

Yes, I've seen this elsewhere - when interacting with people in higher level white collar jobs in the pesticide industry. Their salaries are good, their jobs depend on denialism and ignoring scientific research, and so they spout the industry line of "it's safe"..."nothing is proven". So it continues...

A few excerpts from ProPublica: Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe

The next morning, anxious to see the results, Hansen arrived at the lab before anyone else. For the first time since she had begun testing blood, some of the samples showed no trace of PFOS. She was so struck that she called her husband. There was nothing wrong with her equipment or methodology; PFOS, a man-made chemical produced by her employer, really was in human blood, practically everywhere. ...continue reading "Denialism and Cover-up At Manufacturer Of Forever Chemicals"

Dupont Chemical facility in Delaware Credit: Wikipedia

Reading studies or news reports is not the only way to get information about the dangerous "forever chemicals" (PFAS chemicals) that are found in basically all of us. Some films and videos are also excellent sources of information.

There is a very good legal thriller film called Dark Waters (released in 2019, official trailer, now on Netflix), an investigative documentary The Devil We Know (official trailer, now on Amazon), as well as short videos such as that produced by NRDC (PFAS: The Toxic Forever Chemicals Crisis) and PBS News Hour (Why PFAS are so impervious, and who is at most risk from the forever chemicals).

Attorney Rob Billot

The film Dark Waters is based on a true story. In it, attorney Robert Bilott (played by Mark Ruffalo) jeopardizes his career to expose Dupont's toxic chemical waste dumping scheme (of forever chemicals used in Teflon), the harms they caused (including deaths), and of corporate greed and corruption.

In 2019, Robert Billot's book (Exposure) about his battle with Dupont Exposure was also published.

Harmful PFOS chemicals, are commonly referred to as forever chemicals because they persist in the environment and accumulate in all of us, where they cause all sorts of health harms, including cancers, decreased fertility, liver damage, thyroid disease, impaired immune system, abnormal fetal development. They even go to the brain! The chemicals are found in many products that we are exposed to daily (e.g., non-stick pots and pans, grease-proof packaging).

The world is heating up quickly and climate scientists are very worried and scared about what's in our future. A recent survey conducted by The Guardian finds that climate scientists are very pessimistic about our ability to limit future temperature increases.

By the way, this past April was the 11th straight month of global record-breaking heat, and it looks like this trend will continue. Most of the scientists surveyed felt that we will blow past the internationally agreed 2.7 degrees F and will hit at least a 4.5 degrees F increase in this century. Almost half thought there would be a 5.4 degrees F increase.

This uncontrolled temperature increase will result in catastrophic changes for the world. Famines, mass migrations, heatwaves, wildfires, extreme storms! It's on us, especially our governments, to take action. Now!

Excerpts from The Guardian: World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target

Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed. ...continue reading "Climate Scientists Are Very Worried About Our Future"

There's a new word that describes all the weird weather we've been having recently. It's global weirding. It describes the weird weather extremes that we've been experiencing - for example, the extreme heat in Arizona last summer (more than a month of over 110 degrees F), extreme wildfires (Canada last year), extreme torrential rains.

All sorts of weather records are being broken each year. This weird and extreme weather is occurring because our climate is changing. Thomas Friedman described global weirding years ago. He wrote in the NY Times:

"Avoid the term “global warming.” I prefer the term “global weirding,” because that is what actually happens as global temperatures rise and the climate changes. The weather gets weird. The hots are expected to get hotter, the wets wetter, the dries drier and the most violent storms more numerous."

From Discover: As Weather Extremes Increase in 2023, Global Weirding Becomes a Better Term

While temperatures in Phoenix soared above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for a record-shattering 31 straight days in July, people began turning up in emergency rooms with third-degree burns they’d suffered after falling — their skin seared by blistering hot pavement. Although not unprecedented, burn specialists said the number and severity of injuries were much higher than ever before. ...continue reading "Welcome To Global Weirding"

Once again, another month had record warmth. March 2024 was the warmest March on Earth. And it's the 10th month in a row that set global heat records  (since June 2023). Yikes!

Ocean warmth has had 11 record-setting months in a row. Meanwhile, scientists are divided over whether climate change (and warmth) is accelerating or all this record warmth month after month is in line with climate change predictions.

The big question: What will summer heat be like?

From The Weather Channel: Earth's Warmest March Is 10th Straight Record Month, Just-Released Data Shows

March was E​arth's warmest on record, according to preliminary data, the latest month in a stretch of heat records since the planet's hottest year in 2023. ...continue reading "Earth Just Had Its Warmest March"

Chronic wasting disease is slowly spreading through the US - county by county, state by state. In July 2022 it had been detected in deer, moose, or elk in 30 states, and by December 2023 in 32 states.

In December 2023, it was detected in Kentucky in a white-tailed buck that a hunter killed. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) has now been found in deer in 6 of the 7 states bordering Kentucky. [CDC map]

Chronic wasting disease is an always fatal neurologic disease that can occur in cervids (deer, elk, moose, reindeer). It is a prion disease similar to "mad cow disease" (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob's disease in humans. There is no vaccine, treatment, or cure for the disease.

So far there is no evidence that CWD has crossed over to humans. But extra caution should be taken. Don't eat meat from infected deer or moose. Hunters should follow state precautions in field dressing and butchering, and have the meat tested for CWD. [CDC site for CWD]

How is it spread? Scientists believe CWD prions spread between animals through body fluids (e.g., feces, saliva, blood, or urine), either through direct contact or indirectly through environmental contamination of soil, food or water. Once introduced into an area or farm, the CWD prion (protein) is contagious within deer and elk populations and spreads.

Once CWD gets into the soil, it stays there for years, and so animals can contract it even after infected deer and elk have died. Recent research found that plants uptake the prions where it remains infectious. Yikes!

How do you get rid of it? Unfortunately, high heat, disinfectants, and radiation don't kill the CWD prions. Dr.Zabel at the Colorado State Univ. Prion Research Center suggested a few years ago that controlled burns (fires) of infected fields or areas could eliminate the prions left behind by infected animals (from animal mucus/saliva, urine, and feces, and decaying carcasses) on plants and soil.

A concerning study. From Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) : Plants can take up CWD-causing prions from soil in the lab. What happens if they are eaten? ...continue reading "Chronic Wasting Disease Now Detected In 32 States"

It's March 1, which means meteorological spring is here. Cold winter is over, yet it didn't feel that cold for most. In fact, the last year has been unprecedented and shocking with all the warm records that were set.

This past winter was the warmest on record for the lower 48 in the United States - when looking at records going back to 1880. January was the eighth straight month Earth set a new warm record - a streak that started in June 2023.

Makes you wonder what's ahead for us this year. Will we keep breaking records for warmth? Probably yes.

From Weather Underground: It Was America's Warmest Winter On Record, Preliminary Data Shows

Winter was the warmest on record in the contiguous U.S. since the late 19th century, and was particularly warm from parts of the upper Midwest into the Northeast.

M​eteorologists group seasons into tidy three-month buckets that more closely follow average temperatures, rather than astronomical seasons that follow the changing sun angle. Meteorological winter follows the typically coldest months of the year from December through February.

E​xcept for some, it didn't feel all that cold this winter. 

It truly is a warming world. Scientists normally label hurricanes according to their strength from Category 1 to Category 5 (wind speeds 158 mph or greater). Some climate scientists are now proposing adding a Category 6 due to the increased strength of recent hurricanes.

The new Category 6 would be storms with wind speeds greater than 192 mph. When the researchers examined wind speeds from past storms, they found 5 storms that would have been reclassified as Category 6. And they all occurred in the past decade.

The researchers expect that as the world warms, the number of Category 6 storms will increase. Stronger storms = more destruction. Yikes!

By the way, hurricanes, tropical storms, and typhoons are essentially the same kind of storm. They are just called different names in different parts of the world.

From Science Daily: In a warming world, climate scientists consider category 6 hurricanes

For more than 50 years, the National Hurricane Center has used the Saffir-Simpson Windscale to communicate the risk of property damage; it labels a hurricane on a scale from Category 1 (wind speeds between 74 -- 95 mph) to Category 5 (wind speeds of 158 mph or greater). ...continue reading "Hurricanes Are Getting Stronger"