Erin Brockovich helps launch class action over a cancer-linked chemical PFAS in Australia

Erin Brockovich is backing the largest class action in Australia’s history where up to 40,000 people are set to sue the government over a cancer-linked chemical used at military bases. SEE IF IT’S NEAR YOU

A cancer-linked chemical has become the subject of the largest class action in Australia’s history.

Up to 40,000 people across the country are set to launch legal action against the Federal Government over their use of the substance PFAS.

PFAS is a chemical compound that looks like foam and it can extinguish strong jet fuel fires.

It’s alleged PFAS has been used in significant amounts at several military bases causing the value of nearby properties to fall.

Shine Lawyers, who is running the class action, has enlisted the help of American activist Erin Brockovich, who said she was “dumbfounded” by Australia’s failure to address the problem.

American activist Erin Brockovich is supporting the class action. Picture: Matt Turner.

There are eight military bases embroiled in the class action: Darwin, NT; Wagga Wagga, NSW; Richmond, NSW, Bullsbrook, WA; Edinburgh, SA; Wodonga, VIC, and two in Townsville, QLD.

Ms Brockovich told ABC Radio National’s Law Report that “testicular cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid disease, thyroid cancer” are among the diseases associated with PFAS. A number of countries including the UK and the US have confirmed a link between the chemical and cancer, but Australia has rejected this.

The issue “should be concerning for all of us”, Ms Brockovich told the ABC.

“Every one of us has a common bond here, about loving the environment and our family — what we leave, the legacy we leave for our children. We’re destroying that and it’s heartbreaking,” she said.

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Shine Lawyers lead counsel Joshua Aylward said the Department of Defence used a significant amount of the firefighting foam chemical on bases across Australia between the 1970s and the 2000s.

“[PFAS] has leached into the environment and left the boundaries of these bases and entered into the communities, and it’s in the rivers and the creeks and the fish and the people,” Mr Aylward told the ABC.

He said he had spent time with families living around these communities who feared for their wellbeing.

Mr Aylward added: “They can’t sell their properties because people won’t buy them, and even if they could find someone to buy them, it’s for such a little amount of money that many of them couldn’t pay out their mortgages on their amount of money they’re being offered.”

Eight military bases are embroiled in the class action over the use of firefighting foam. Picture: CRC Care

Ms Brockovich hit out at the Australian Government’s directive on PFAS, saying: “They give warnings: don’t eat the fish, eat limited fish, don’t drink the water — but on the other hand, you’re telling people it’s safe.”

“It’s an extraordinarily confusing message.”

In 2016, the American environmental activist spoke with locals in the rural town of Oakey, Queensland, where she described the groundwater contamination crisis as worse than what she witnessed in the United States.

The same chemical compound was in question at the time.

“These are toxic compounds that can wreak havoc with your health, and once they’re in you, they won’t leave,” Ms Brockovich told The Courier Mail at the time.

“People (in Oakey) are sick, they have been harmed, and their property values have been degraded.”

The action will be filed by Christmas.