The Dupont chemical manufacturing plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, has been dumping PFAS into the Cape Fear River for decades with environmental and humanitarian consequences. Well, the situation has gotten worse! Recent tests have discovered eight new PFAS in the river water with a direct link to an increase in thyroid cancer cases. So, is the Fayetteville city council or North Carolina state government doing anything to protect its citizens? Nope! They are supporting Dupont!
PFAS are chemicals manufactured by Chemours, who owns Dupont, that have non-stick and water-resistant properties and are used on residential, industrial, and commercial products like Teflon pans. They are called forever chemicals because they don’t break down over time. Once they are in the water or soil, they keep contaminating people, animals, and plants and making them sick forever.
The new PFAS have been linked to reproductive problems, including birth defects, in animals and people. But now, there is a clear link between eight new PFAS discovered in the Cape Fear River water and an increase in thyroid cancer. It is extremely difficult to remove PFAs from the soil and water, making this an environmental and humanitarian crisis.
There are forty-four Dupont plants in the US and 104 worldwide. Everywhere there is a DuPont plant, there is a cluster of thyroid cancer cases and other health problems. But what makes the situation a nightmare is local officials are not protecting their citizens. In Fayetteville, despite the increase in thyroid cancer cases, they are allowing Dupont to continue to operate. Even worse, they authorized Dupont to import 4,000,000 pounds of waste from another one of their plants in the Netherlands! That’s right. The Netherlands is cracking down on Dupont waste that’s full of PFAS. The solution? Ship it to North Carolina, which has lax environmental laws! This magnifies the health threat because there isn’t a good way to treat this waste.
North Carolina is not alone in having lax environmental laws. While states like Oregon and California are suing Dupont and winning huge settlements, other states like Arizona, Utah, Texas, Wyoming, Montana, South Carolina, Maryland, and New Jersey are more interested in the financial benefits of the manufacturing plants. Dupont kicks back money to corrupt politicians, and their business thrives in those states.
The bottom line is Chemours, who owns DuPont, has chemical plants all over the US that have been dumping PFAS into our drinking water for decades. There isn’t any safe state. It is really up to all of us to protect ourselves and our families with multi-stage water filtration systems, like what’s in our premium water ionizers. These filtration systems will remove cancer-causing chemicals from our drinking and give us peace of mind.
