3M reaches $10.3B settlement over PFAS contamination of water systems
Surely, lot of words about how these chemicals don&#x27;t degrade naturally, but none about the actual impact. Same like microplastics. Not denying that PFAS can&#x27;t be harmful, but how can we prosecute just on the basis of the fact that these chemicals exist, when the evidence of harm is inconclusive? Stuart Ritchie is my favorite health journalist to refer to whenever it comes to things like these [1]:<p>&gt; Some of the evidence comes from animal studies: studies have claimed that exposing rats and mice to the chemicals has negative effects on their ability to reproduce. The problem—aside from the inherent problem with comparing non-human animals to human ones—is that the concentrations of the chemicals are normally far, far higher in the animal studies than they are for humans in everyday life. As with all “toxins”, the dose makes the poison: something that is harmful to health at high levels could be entirely safe if the average person never has very much of it in their system.<p>&gt; The Guardian – which has published dozens of articles about these “dangerous”, “potentially toxic” chemicals in the last few years – called the new research “the first known study on the effects of PFAS on female fertility”. That’s a little odd, since earlier this year a review study put together 13 previous such studies, drawing the conclusion that “increased levels of PFAS exposure are associated with reduced fertility in women”.<p>&gt; As with all such reviews, that conclusion is dependent on the quality and consistency of the underlying 13 studies. Unfortunately, the studies we have are all over the place: even though on average they point to an association of PFAS with lower fertility, the estimate of the size of the association varies a great deal from study to study.<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;inews.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;forever-chemicals-fertility-study-linking-flawed-2267026" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;inews.co.uk&#x2F;news&#x2F;forever-chemicals-fertility-study-l...</a>