
Milestones: A fight against ‘forever chemicals’
Advocates from PIRG and other groups have worked to raise awareness and prevention of PFAS, "forever chemicals" that are used in a range of everyday products.

Losing the farm to PFAS
On a spring day in 2016, Susan Gordon receives devastating news: The water at the 200-acre farm she and her husband manage near Colorado Springs is contaminated.
Less than 10 miles away, the Peterson Air Force Base has been using firefighting foam in training exercises for decades. The foam contains chemicals that persist so long in the environment they’re nicknamed “forever chemicals.” More formally known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), the pollutants are linked to liver problems, asthma, kidney and testicular cancer, obesity, immune disorders, thyroid disease and Type 2 diabetes.
In December 2017, Susan and her family shut down their farm. “Everything just stopped,” she said. “To have it so abruptly ended was hard. We just felt so helpless.”
Over the next few years, Susan and other people affected by PFAS, with help from groups such as Community Action Works and PIRG, raised awareness of these forever chemicals — and won some small first steps toward cleaning them up and preventing further exposures.

Awareness grows as PFAS are found everywhere
In recent years, PFAS contamination has been found everywhere — including, according to the CDC, in the blood of nearly everyone tested for the chemicals.
And it’s no wonder. The substances are used in a wide range of everyday products to make them non-stick (as in cookware), stain-resistant (carpets), waterproof (clothing), and grease-proof (food packaging).
Researchers estimate that PFAS can be found in the drinking water supplies for over 200 million Americans.
As evidence of the contamination has spread, so too has awareness, with help from our advocates and organizers. In October 2020, in Fairfield, Maine, Lawrence and Penny Higgins heard their neighbors were having their water tested for PFAS.
Given that compost containing PFAS-contaminated sludge had been spread on nearby farmland, Lawrence and Penny decided to do the same. When the tests came back, state officials advised the couple to stop drinking their water, using it for cooking, and giving it to their animals. With help from Community Action Works, Lawrence organized a Facebook group of over 200 people who are now calling on officials to test every well, provide clean water to all families, and end the use of contaminated sludge in compost.

Targeting PFAS use in firefighting, food packaging and more
PIRG advocates have called for legislative action in Congress and in state capitols, as well as more responsible practices by corporations.
In 2019, Congress approved a PIRG-backed provision to phase out the military’s use of PFAS in firefighting foam. On July 21, 2021, the U.S. House approved the bipartisan PFAS Action Act, directing the EPA to limit PFAS discharges into waterways and call a moratorium on new PFAS chemicals.
PIRG also has urged companies such as McDonald’s and Burger King to stop their use of PFAS in food packaging and REI to phase out the sale of outdoor clothing and gear that uses PFAS.

About this series: PIRG, Environment America and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on toxics below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s toxics milestones.


Milestones: An ounce of pollution prevention
