The Omnipresent Poison

 Wyatt Quillin

Mr. Roddy

IHSS

20 January 2021

The Omnipresent Poison

In virtually every household across the Western world, you’ll find cardboard, water-resistant clothing, non-stick pans, cleaning solutions, carpet, and other common items that are taken for granted in our modern world. There is also something else that every household has. It’s called PFOA and PFOS. These artificial chemicals reside in a mind-boggling amount of products in our day to day lives. These chemicals get into our bodies and can cause extreme health problems over time. Each and every person in the USA most likely has these chemicals in their body. The companies that produced these items knew about PFOA and PFOS and their effects, but still decided to release them to the public. The fight against PFOA, PFOS, and the products that they accompanied, was kick-started by a concerned farmer. He noticed that his cattle were getting sick and dying, and believed that it was the white foam that came from the creek his cattle drank from. It turned out that the poisonous material was flowing into his creek and the drinking water of his neighbors, as well as the drinking water of most of America. PFOA can cause many different health problems including cancer, heart disease, birth defects, stillbirth, throat and respiratory problems, and more. This is very troubling because these poisons are basically everywhere. This problem was brought up, and PFOA and PFOS were both banned in America in 2006. This means that it’s not used in any products anymore. Even though it’s been phased out, PFOA is a forever chemical, which means that it can last virtually forever in our environments and bodies, so it hasn’t fully gone away. Something that might keep you up at night is that PFOA can affect the strength of vaccines. This does not bode well, especially with the current circumstances. Countless people have been affected by these chemicals, and because of the problems they’ve caused, the companies producing them should be held accountable. 

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