Plastic waste from America, collected for recycling, is shipped to Indonesia. Some is burned as fuel by tofu makers, producing deadly chemicals and contaminating food.
Tropodo, Indonesia Black smoke billows from smokestacks towering above the village. The smell of burning plastic fills the air. Patches of black ash cover the ground. It’s another day of making tofu.
A United Nations committee’s recent recommendation to ban an entire group of persistent fluorochemicals will better protect communities, consumers, and workers, according to an international environmental organization.
PFHXs, Used as a Substitute for Banned PFOS and PFOA, Recommended for Global Ban
Friday, 04 October 2019
Rome, Italy An U.N. expert committee decided unanimously to recommend a complete global elimination for another toxic fluorinated “forever chemical.” Fluorinated chemicals are widespread pollutants threatening drinking water sources, public health and the occupational health of firefighters. They do not break down in the environment and accumulate in the bodies of wildlife and people. They are used in a wide variety of products, including firefighting foam, waterproofing of textiles, and food packaging, as well as other industrial and consumer applications.
Urgent action needed on highly persistent PFAS chemicals
A new CHEM Trust briefing highlights the threats posed to the environment and human health by a family of over 4,000 highly persistent chemicals: PFAS (Per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances), also known as the ‘forever chemicals’.
IPEN presents the third in a series of papers prepared by an international panel of experts on PFAS chemicals. This paper, Perfluorohexane Sulfonate (PFHxS)— Socio-Economic Impact, Exposure, and the Precautionary Principle, offers unique insights about threats to drinking water sources, public health and the occupational health of firefighters due to the particular physico-chemical properties of PFHxS, including its greater mobility, hydrogeological fractionation, and long elimination half-life in people.
Anchorage, Alaska, USA The Alaska PFAS Action Coalition (APAC), Gustavus PFAS Action Coalition, and Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) will hold a news conference Wednesday, September 25th at the Lakefront Anchorage Hotel 4800 at Spenard Rd. at 12:00pm.
IPEN has convened an international panel of independent experts from the fields of fire safety, chemistry, policy, and remediation to present at this side event. The panel also offers the third in a series of papers about PFAS chemicals: sources of contamination, implications for public and occupational health, safe alternatives, and remediation.
