Stop chemicals’ production now

A front-page article published Tuesday discusses the contamination of our water, fish and people with perfluorooctane sulfonate, or PFOS, manufactured by 3M and used in all sorts of items (“Analysis: Freshwater fish much more contaminated”). It notes the illnesses caused by these forever chemicals. The situation is indeed serious.

The article also notes that 3M will cease manufacturing these chemicals by 2025.

If we know these dangerous contaminants are affecting all of us and all our food and water supplies, why not prohibit their manufacturing and use now? Why wait for two more years and allow the adding of more potentially cancer-causing contamination to our environment?

It would be an economic hit to 3M to stop now, but the cost to our society would be far less.

This is important to all of us. It will be especially important to those experiencing liver failure, cancer, immune disorders, increased cholesterol levels, etc.

The time to act is now.

— Robert B. Hamilton, Wauconda

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