The investigation revealed a strategy by 3M, the company which manufactured a suite of products, including the fire fighting foam once used at HMAS Albatross, of allegedly attempting to “command the science” surrounding the chemicals’ effects and potential harms.

It also pointed to a cancer cluster at a Minnesota high school close to where the products were produced.

The week after the investigation was published, the NSW EPA extended the dietary advice over fish species to cover the entire tidal reach of the Shoalhaven River. The advice was to limit the weekly serves of five fish species caught in the river.

We have also learned that PFAS has been detected in the influent – the untreated waste pumped into the plants – at council sewage works. While the levels detected have not been deemed dangerous, the discovery confirms this stuff is working its way through the human food chain.

This is disturbing because PFAS have been banned in 171 countries but not in Australia. It is disturbing because in the US  the Environmental Protection Agency found the “weight of evidence” supported the conclusion that the chemicals were a human health hazard, warning that exposure over certain levels could result in immune and developmental effects and cancer.

It is disturbing because PFAS are still used in a variety of products to which we are routinely exposed. These include paints, stain removers, shampoos, pesticides and even food packaging. 

The teflon used widely for non-stick pans also contains PFAS. 

History is littered with chemicals that were widely used only to be later withdrawn and banned because of the toxic legacy they left behind. Insecticides such as as DDT followed by dieldrin were found to be accumulated in the fatty tissue of animals exposed to them.

With more than 90 sites across Australia, and 25 in NSW, now under investigation for elevated levels of PFAS, the problem appears to be worse than first thought.

We urge everyone to heed the EPA dietary advice. Caution, not panic, is needed.