Categories: News

PFAS in our pesticides?

PFAS—which refers to the broad class of fluorinated “forever chemicals” that The Counter discovered in compostable takeout bowls in 2019—have a variety of industrial applications, even as concerns about their health impacts grow. Now, Roll Call reports, the Environmental Protection Agency made a troubling disclosure: A toxic form of PFAS was being used in the linings of pesticide storage containers, a finding with potentially vast environmental implications. Because the PFAS leached from the linings into the pesticide, it, too, was sprayed into the air in large quantities as part of ongoing treatments meant to control mosquito-borne diseases. The discovery has “opened a Pandora’s Box of health risks,” according to one expert. Yeah, we just lost our lunch. 

Related Post
The Counter and The Counter
Share
Published by
The Counter and The Counter

Recent Posts

Is California giving its methane digesters too much credit?

Every year, California dairy farms emit hundreds of thousands of tons of the potent greenhouse…

2 years ago

Your car is killing coho salmon

Highway 7 runs north-south through western Washington, carving its way through a landscape sparsely dotted…

2 years ago

The pandemic has transformed America’s dining landscape into an oligopoly dominated by chains 

One of the greatest pleasures I had as a child growing up in the Chicago…

2 years ago

California is moving toward food assistance for all populations—including undocumented immigrants

Undocumented immigrants experience food insecurity at much higher rates than other populations, yet they are…

2 years ago

Babka, borscht … and pumpkin spice? Two writers talk about Jewish identity through contemporary cookbooks.

Writer Charlotte Druckman and editor Rebecca Flint Marx are both Jewish journalists living in New…

2 years ago

How some big grocery chains help ensure that food deserts stay barren

Last fall, first-year law student Karissa Kang arrived at Yale University and quickly set out…

2 years ago