An investigation by newsrooms including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press & FRONTLINE (PBS) has revealed how the economic engine that sustained northwest #Georgia #contaminated the area & neighboring states, too. Downriver from Dalton, AL.com found cities in #Alabama are struggling to remove #PFAS from #DrinkingWater. And in #SouthCarolina, The Post & Courier traced a local watchdog’s discovery of #ForeverChemicals to a #river by a Shaw factory.
#law #health
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@Nonilex I grew up in Dalton. Almost every household on my street had at least one case of cancer. Not radon. I had a friend who had to have a double mastectomy in her early 20s, another was diagnosed with colon cancer in his early 20s. This is not normal. We asked for years if there was something in the water, and the city fathers poopoo-ed our concerns, saying no. A huge case of passing the buck and pointing fingers elsewhere. I myself had prostate cancer and thyroid nodules.
Meanwhile, the local public #utility in Dalton, #Georgia responsible for ensuring safe #DrinkingWater coordinated with #carpet executives in private meetings that would effectively shield their companies from #oversight.
Year after year, the #chemicals traveled in #water discarded during manufacturing from mills across northwest Georgia, eventually reaching a #river system that provides drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia & eastern #Alabama.
The #pollution is so bad some researchers have identified the region as one of the nation’s #PFAS hot spots. Today, the consequences can be found everywhere. PFAS, often called #ForeverChemicals because they can take decades or more to break down, are in the #water & the #soil.
They’re in the dust on floors where #children crawl, the local #fish & #wildlife, & as ongoing research has shown, the #people.
#law #EnvironmentalLaw #regulations #PublicHealth #Climate #DrinkingWater #Alabama #Georgia
An investigation by newsrooms including The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Associated Press & FRONTLINE (PBS) has revealed how the economic engine that sustained northwest #Georgia #contaminated the area & neighboring states, too. Downriver from Dalton, AL.com found cities in #Alabama are struggling to remove #PFAS from #DrinkingWater. And in #SouthCarolina, The Post & Courier traced a local watchdog’s discovery of #ForeverChemicals to a #river by a Shaw factory.
#law #health
The full story of #Georgia’s #power structures prioritizing a prized industry over #PublicHealth is only now emerging through dozens of interviews & thousands of pages of court records from lawsuits against the industry & its #chemical suppliers. Those records, including testimony from key executives, emails & other internal documents, detail how #carpet companies benefited from chemistry & #regulatory #inaction to keep using #ForeverChemicals.
All the while, the mills still hummed.