Federal parliament will hold a broad-ranging national inquiry into the dangers posed by cancer-causing “forever chemicals” to the Australian public.
It follows months of sustained pressure over revelations from this masthead that the substances are circulating in Australian drinking water and hundreds of household products. The government was warned of their dangers as far back as 1981, and manufacturers covered up their presence in human blood and buried warnings from scientists about their carcinogenic potential.
3M’s global headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota.Credit: Bloomberg
The inquiry into the per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, also known as PFAS, will be chaired by Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe, who described them as the “asbestos of the 21st century, just far more prevalent and far less understood”.
“These chemicals already affect every single person in the world, yet not enough is being done to manage our exposure to them and reduce the risks,” she said.
“We’ve already seen worrying instances of cancer clusters with suspected links to PFAS chemicals. We cannot take them seriously enough.”
Senator Lidia Thorpe.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
A years-long documentary investigation by this masthead, iKandy Films, and Stan has unearthed devastating levels of sickness and death in an Aboriginal community on the NSW South Coast that was heavily exposed to forever chemicals leaching off a neighbouring Defence base.
The documentary How to Poison a Planet also revealed how Wall Street giant 3M made billions from the family of non-stick and stain-repellent chemicals while allegedly covering up the fact that their factory had contaminated the blood of nearly every person in the world.
The company is accused of waging a campaign to suppress scientific evidence of the chemicals’ links to cancer and a slew of other adverse effects, including high cholesterol and immune dysfunction.
Last year, the World Health Organisation declared one of the best-known forever chemicals carcinogenic, decades after 3M quietly became aware that it caused animals to develop cancer and die in laboratory studies.
Previous investigations by this masthead have also uncovered clusters of cancer cases, including 21 in an American high school and 50 on a road in regional NSW where the water was heavily polluted with forever chemicals.
The inquiry will explore sources of everyday exposure to consumers amid revelations that up to 900 household products contain PFAS and there is no law prohibiting the sale of unsafe goods in Australia.
It will probe the adequacy of Australia’s drinking water guidelines, after this masthead revealed they allow a carcinogenic forever chemical in tap water at 140 times the level the US will allow.
It will investigate challenges around conducting research into PFAS, including the influence the chemicals industry has wielded over the evolving body of evidence.
Other areas it will examine include international best practices for risk assessments, the clean-up of forever chemicals and the phasing out of the substances. Australia is one of the last OECD nations to ban some of the most notorious forever chemicals.
The inquiry will probe the actions of a wide range of federal agencies that have been grappling with the fallout of forever chemicals in firefighting foam poisoning tens of thousands of homes near airports, fire stations and defence bases across the country.
It will examine “fair and appropriate compensation schemes” after residents were forced into a years-long battle with the Department of Defence for compensation.
Defence has paid out $366 million to settle class actions with 11 communities so far, but they have only covered damage to property and culture rather than health effects.
The committee will consist of six senators, including two from the government and opposition, respectively, along with Senator Thorpe and a member of the Greens.
Thorpe said the inquiry would give the public a clearer understanding of the chemicals and how current and future generations of Australians can be protected from them.
“This is particularly important for First Peoples, whose cultural practices, country and waters are under threat from these harmful chemicals – not just on this continent, but across the world.”
The inquiry will report its findings by August next year.
Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.