It’s In Our Blood: Communities vs Forever Chemicals

About this episode

The episode discusses the fight against PFAS or 'forever chemicals' and the impact of community action on regulation and health.

There are chemicals in your blood that weren't there fifty years ago. They are in the products you use, the water you drink, the food you eat - and for years, almost nobody was told the full truth about the risk. This week, Christiana speaks to two women who found contamination in their communities and refused to accept it. Emily Donovan and Sarah Alexander have spent decades fighting for greater regulation of PFAS or ‘forever chemicals’. Through their work, and the work of many others, some progress has been made on regulation, and on supporting the communities most impacted. But this story is far from over. Because these chemicals don't break down. They move through soil, through water, through the food chain and through us. And the impacts on our health and on our ecosystems are only beginning to come to light.So, with environmental protection rollbacks at the US federal level, can progress endure? And can community action take on the big companies and the big money behind this scandal? This episode is about what happens when institutions fail, what accountability actually requires, and why the clean energy transition is incomplete if we trade one toxic system for another…

People in this episode

Host: Christiana

Guests: Emily Donovan, Sarah Alexander

Topics covered

• environmental health
• community action
• chemical regulation
• PFAS contamination
• toxic substances
• accountability
• clean energy transition

Keywords

• forever chemicals
• PFAS
• environmental protection
• community activism
• health impacts
• chemical regulation
• toxic systems

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Clean Cape Fear, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, DuPont, PFAS

Books & works: Dark Waters

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