Read the full article by Beatrice M. Spadacini (Truthdig)
“In November of 2023, a group of 30 scientists from 11 countries met at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France and confirmed the findings of a new study published in The Lancet Oncology: One type of the group of chemicals known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is cancerous to humans, and another is possibly cancerous. The findings came on the back of more than a decade of evidence of the potential harm PFAS pose to human health.
This didn’t arrive as news to Michela Piccoli, a nurse in Lonigo, a town in the Veneto region of northern Italy. For nearly seven years, the mother of two has been researching PFAS, known as ‘forever chemicals’ for their propensity to last indefinitely while accumulating in the tissue of humans, animals and, according to a new paper awaiting publication, crops. In February of 2017, she received a letter from the area’s public health institution, Local Social Health Unit no. 8, offering a free blood screening for her 15-year-old daughter. For decades until its closure in 2019, a company called Miteni Spa — co-owned at the time by Mistubishi and the Italian energy multinational, Eni — manufactured PFAS in the area. The tests were part of the surveillance program on populations affected by PFAS contamination and measured the level of PFAS in the blood of a sample of teens living in the Veneto region, including Lonigo.
Piccoli had never heard of PFAS, but as a nurse she felt it important to contribute to the study. A month later, the results came back: PFAS levels in Piccoli’s daughter’s blood were 110 nanograms per milliliter, far above the National Institute of Health’s threshold of 8 nanograms. ‘I was stunned and confused,’ she recalls. The letter urged calm, but as Piccoli started reaching out to friends in the area, she found she was far from alone in receiving equally alarming results.”
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