Ep 32 (PFAS Australia, Sweden, US) - Recap of Talking PFAS (from Ep 18-30)

Welcome back to Talking PFAS Podcast. I am a journalist and your host Kayleen Bell.

If you are joining me for the first time a very big welcome to you. I want to say thank you so much to my regular listeners for being patient with me while I took an extended break, which unfortunately became longer than I wanted due to an injury I suffered, but I am very much on the mend now.

I appreciate you coming back to listen to Season 5 of Talking PFAS Podcast. As always I encourage you to share the podcast with your networks, if you have found value in it, and I would appreciate your review on iTunes, or feedback via email to TalkingPFAS@gmail.com.

As the content in this podcast series, even the earliest episodes, is relevant to any person working with, researching or trying hard to avoid PFAS chemicals, I do encourage you to go back and visit previous episodes. Even though I believe all episodes of this podcast series are worth a listen, if you are new to the podcast and are interested in my editor’s choice selection, I strongly suggest a listen to Episode 1, 4, and 9 to start, followed by Episodes 17, 18, 22, 24 and 31.

Since learning about this class of chemicals in 2018, I have travelled to many states of Australia, and interviewed people in person or over the phone from Oakey, Williamtown, Salt Ash, Fullerton Cove, Richmond, Katherine, Tasmania, Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney, Perth and Newcastle. This year I hope to visit many more people in many more towns to discuss with residents and others how PFAS chemical contamination has affected their properties and their lives.

I have also had the privilege of interviewing many international experts to discuss PFAS from their medical, scientific, remediation, political, or expert opinion. I have interviewed some fantastic international guests from California, Sweden, Texas, Washington, Boston, Michigan, Switzerland, Colorado and California.

This season I will bring you some more great discussions with Australian and International guests with the one goal being to understand PFAS chemicals better, and learn what is new regarding regulations and scientific discoveries about this complex class of compounds.

Whilst health effects are still debated regarding PFAS chemicals, they have definitely been associated by experts with some PFAS compounds. However, one thing is abundantly clear from the experts I have spoken to, the of this class of chemicals is something which warrants a high degree of caution, and attention. Many experts argue that the persistence of this class of chemicals requires swift action and they recommend banning the whole group of PFAS chemicals.persistence

In Australia, a class action between three communities in Australia and the Department of Defence settled out of court in 2020, and these communities received a payout of $212 million dollars, which after paying a huge amount of legal fees was divided amongst many thousands of impacted community members, but most as I understand, and I have not spoken to all, have not received enough compensation to move from their contaminated property.

The class action payout was awarded due to property value losses that residents with contaminated properties had experienced. One of the conditions of the class action though was that they could have no future claims against the Department of Defence for PFAS contamination to their properties. However, they can still in the future make a claim against the Department of Defence for PFAS related health issues.

This season, along with interviewing more experts, and discussing the latest PFAS research and regulatory actions in Australia and around the world, I hope to re-visit some people who were involved in the first PFAS class action in Australia. I will attempt to find out where are they now, and whether their lives have changed since the class action settled. This is important because in Australia right now SHINE Lawyers are involved in a further, larger super class action involving communities in WA, NT, SA, QLD, NSW and VIC.

“Shine Lawyers is seeking compensation for property owners for economic loss, including the diminution in value of their land. Any action would be an open class action, meaning residents living in eight affected communities who meet certain criteria will automatically be included unless they choose not to be involved. National Special Counsel Joshua Aylward said he estimates up to 40,000 people live in these communities, and are affected by these chemicals.”

Finally, as Australia is facing an election in 2022, I will also hope to find out what the Government intends to do about PFAS more broadly in Australia, and how much money they intend to set aside to contribute to PFAS Research and remediation or compensation in Australia. I was interviewed by ABC just prior to the 2019 Election and sadly many of the issues faced then still remain today.

I hope you enjoy the recap of Season 3 & 4 today of Talking PFAS today and I hope you will join me for Season 5 of Talking PFAS, which will return on 29/3/21.