LANSING, Mich. — Lawmakers gathered on Tuesday to unveil and call for greater action on contamination from toxic, man-made chemicals and commercial byproducts known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
"I've seen firsthand how, in my home district, these forever chemicals and the health complications that they cause are impacting residents - especially when they're found in the water that those residents drink and the fish that we eat in the lakes and streams that we enjoy," State Rep. Rachel Hood (D-Grand Rapids)
Lawmakers were joined by members of the Great Lakes PFAS Action Network as well as residents impacted by PFAS contamination of local water and land resources.
Great Lakes PFAS Action Network Co-Chair and Belmont resident Sandy Wynn-Stelt spoke to how living near the Woverine Worldwide tanning site, discovering her water was contaminated and losing her husband to liver cancer moved her to call for change.
"I lived there for 20 years before I realized that that had occurred," Wynn-Stelt said. "I only learned that it occurred after my husband died of liver cancer. And it was the following year that I learned that I was drinking PFAS-contaminated water."
"That kind of rulemaking is going to be essential," Wynn-Stelt said. "It's also crucial that we hold polluters accountable - polluters that have caused damage to neighborhoods and communities that have cost us as taxpayers millions and millions of dollars to discover it to warn people and to clean this up."
The bills lawmakers at the event said they hoped to craft could include things like more resources for monitoring potential chemical presence, support resources for victims and reducing the use of PFAS in commercial products to lower the risk of local contamination.
"We can and should require insurance providers to cover the cost of blood testing for PFAS so people know their exposure and we should hold polluters financially responsible for cleaning up PFAS pollution and the harm that is caused surrounding communities," said State Rep. Laurie Pohutksky (D-Livonia).
Lawmakers said the introduction of these bills could go into 2024, but could start as early as this summer.
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