By MAXIME GROEN, Women’s Environmental Institute
With recent headlines that read “I was exposed to these chemicals and… I will die with this cancer,”, ”How can I avoid eating food with ‘forever chemicals?”, and “There must be something in the water,” there’s a warning, and they all have to do with something called PFAS.
Over the past 20 years, PFAS is a term that has been increasingly discussed in corporate offices, the media, Congress, and even hospital rooms.
What exactly are PFAS? Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS for short, are a class of chemical compounds that were created by humans in the 1940s. PFAS has been used in the manufacturing of cookware, cosmetics, carpeting, fast food wrappers, sunscreen, fire extinguishing foam, and many more everyday products. These chemicals do not break down over time and, instead, accumulate in peoples’ bodies and the environment, giving them the nickname “forever chemicals.” However, despite evidence that links PFAS exposure to pregnancy complications and various types of cancer, PFAS are not yet considered a hazardous material by the EPA (however, a proposal to do so was issued in August 2022, for which public comment closed on June 12, 2023).
While PFAS have more recently been a topic of wide discussion, researchers started noticing and documenting these harms decades ago. One of these researchers was Dr. Fardin Oliaei, and she paid the price of being a whistle blower.
Why has this issue taken so long to reach national attention? Why did Amara Strand spend the final days of her life advocating for Minnesota H.F. 1000 PFAS Prevention Package, now also known as “Amara’s Law”?
If we rewind to 2006, nearly 20 years ago, when the Google trend of PFAS searches was a near-flatline, we would have heard researcher Dr. Fardin Oliaei blow the whistle about PFAS contamination by 3M right here in Minnesota.
At the time, Dr. Oliaei was the Senior Research Scientist and Coordinator of the Emerging Contaminants Program at the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and on the board of Women’s Environmental Institute (WEI), a local environmental justice non-profit. Alongside WEI, she whistle-blew about toxic chemicals, including PFAS, that were being produced by 3M and contaminating drinking wells and water in the East Metro, impacting low-income communities of color, and particuarly Hmong and Latinx communities.
As a result of testifying against 3M and her persistent advocacy for further research, Dr. Oliaei was forced out of her job at the MPCA. WEI, co-founded by previous House Representative Karen Clark, a decades-long East Phillips resident, continued the funding of Dr. Oliaei’s research for as long as they could. However, as a result of her work, Dr. Oliaei, a single mother of color, was ultimately strong-armed from the workforce and forced to move out of the state of Minnesota to be able to provide for herself and her family.
In honor of the personal and professional sacrifices she made, WEI welcomed Dr. Oliaei back to Minnesota on May 23rd of this year to be the keynote speaker at WEI’s 20th Anniversary Celebration. This event, held at Metro State University’s New Main Great Hall in the East Metro, was an evening filled with Dr. Oliaei’s testimony about those times. Also heard from was Dr. Lee Pao Xiong, the founding Director of the Center for Hmong Archives and Studies at Concordia University. Dr. Lee Pao Xiong played a key role in this research by bringing to light the impact on Hmong and Latinx families in the East Metro.
Women’s Environmental Institute (WEI) is a local non-profit whose mission is environmental justice “through agricultural, food, and racial justice strategies in both urban and rural places, one community at a time, one farm at a time, one person at a time, and all of us together”. WEI’s 20th Anniversary event that evening reflected this mission with stories, laughter, and tears shared. In honor of this great milestone, WEI is reminded of the victories won and the questions not yet answered. WEI is exploring plans to rekindle this research and ensure that those poisoned by PFAS get answers and are cared for.
This article was written with permission from the Strand Family.
