Experts and community members from Sydney’s west and blue mountains have fronted a federal inquiry into PFAS chemicals. The inquiry has heard claims of misconduct by the Commonwealth, with residents in impacted areas alleging their calls for help and requests for information had been brushed off.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Today's the second day of a public hearing into PFAS, also known as forever chemicals,
00:07which experts have said are potentially cancer-causing chemicals found in firefighting foam and
00:13everyday products in the environment.
00:15The second day's hearing was held in Penrith and residents in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury
00:21have come together for a roundtable discussion to discuss the implications of contamination.
00:27In June it was revealed that drinking water in areas in and around the Blue Mountains
00:32had dangerously high levels of PFAS.
00:35The federal inquiry today heard that residents in impacted areas felt that their concerns
00:40had been downplayed and that their calls for help had been brushed off by the government.
00:46Here's what one resident had to say.
00:48We're now in a situation where we now know pretty much for sure that people in the Blue
00:53Mountains have been drinking unsafe levels of PFAS contaminated drinking water out of
00:59their taps for 32 years.
01:02What we now want New South Wales Health to do and the New South Wales Health Minister
01:05to lead this, is to have widespread blood testing of people in the Blue Mountains to
01:11check that the cholesterol levels aren't excessively high amongst the general population.
01:17This follows yesterday's hearing in Nowra, a city in New South Wales' south coast, where
01:22residents and a medical expert heard that members of an Aboriginal community had been
01:27victims of a cancer cluster because of PFAS contamination that was caused by the Department
01:34of Defence.
01:35The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority CEO Tony Chappell stressed the importance
01:40of coordinated efforts between the Commonwealth and state governments.
01:44Everyone has a role to play in PFAS.
01:46The Commonwealth government and the states have been working closely together to phase
01:50it out from our economy from 1 July, which is very pleasing.
01:54It will be prohibited to import or sell or manufacture products containing the most common
01:59PFAS and PFOS chemicals.
02:02This week's public hearings were chaired by Senator Lydia Thorpe and we also heard from
02:06her at the conclusion of the inquiry today.
02:09Visiting Wreck Bay and staying with community over the last four days has just been shocking
02:18to see so many families affected by this forever chemical, PFAS, this man-made chemical
02:26that is literally poisoning people.
02:29There will be more hearings in the coming months and this federal inquiry comes alongside
02:34a New South Wales inquiry that is ongoing.