Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Forever Chemicals' Impact On Americans' Health Will Cost Billions
Daily exposure to cancer-linked 鈥渇orever chemicals鈥 is expected to cost Americans billions of dollars over the current population鈥檚 lifetime, a new study has found. The associated increase in medical bills and decrease in worker productivity could generate economic losses between $5.52 billion and $62.6 billion, according to the study set for publication in the journal Exposure and Health. (Udasin, 7/26)
Also 鈥
Against the backdrop of mounting evidence that links per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to negative impacts on human health, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) released a study that calls for testing the blood of people with extended exposure to the man-made chemicals. (Atwater, 8/1)
Roughly 2,854 locations in the United States are contaminated to some degree by PFAS, and about a quarter of those sites are linked to military installations, according to the 300-page report, which was commissioned by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Olson, 7/29)
After being wafted through the atmosphere and degraded by sunlight, snow then deposits these chemicals into the Antarctic surface.聽鈥淭hese findings are a sobering reminder that our industrial activities have global consequences,鈥 said co-author Anna Jones of the British Antarctic Survey. (Melillo, 7/29)