Read the full article by Tom Perkins (The Guardian)
“Many US military veterans have much higher levels of Pfas ‘forever chemicals’ in their blood than non-veterans, new peer-reviewed research finds, raising more questions about health risks the nation’s service members face after serving at polluted bases.
Ground water, surface water and soil around military bases show among the highest levels of Pfas pollution in the US because the chemicals are used in firefighting foam deployed during training and emergencies. While the problem has been clear for over a decade, the new Brown University-led study is the first to compare levels in veterans’ blood with those in civilians.
The analysis of federal health data found the problem to be concentrated among younger veterans. It estimated that 23 million veterans ages 20–39 have levels of Pfas in blood that are between 13% and 24% higher than non-veterans, depending on the specific compound being measured.
The younger veterans were also more likely to have dangerous levels of Pfas in their blood – they were 18% more likely than young non-veterans to exceed the threshold at which experts suggest people seek medical monitoring.”…