Put That in Your (Water) Pipe?

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is a 'forever chemical' (one that persists for extended periods in the environment). From the 1960's to the early 2000's in the UK, PFOS was widely used in fire-retardant foams. It was naturally especially employed at airfields and other locations, where firefighting training exercises were carried out. PFOS is now banned (like many other 'forever chemicals'), as it has been linked with elevated cholesterol values (a cause of CHD and strokes); low birth weight (associated with physical and intellectual problems in children) and suppressed immune responses (limiting the body's ability to deal with invasive organisms including Sars-CoV-2). Privately-owned Cambridgeshire Water have now admitted suppling drinking water to thousands of homes containing four times the limit of PFOS (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/08/high-levels-of-toxic-chemicals-found-in-cambridgeshire-drinking-water). Some of Cambridgeshire Water's customers were never informed they had been exposed to PFOS or for how long. It's not just sewage that the Water Companies dump on the people they are supposed to serve!