3M Polluting the Mississippi

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http://www.organicconsumers.org/rd-pfc.cfm

Click to send an email to Gov. Pawlenty and others.

" A government scientist has been forced to resign, after discovering

dangerous levels of a toxic chemical in the Mississippi River. The

toxin, specifically known as perfluoronated chemicals (PFCs), is a

byproduct of the manufacture of a number of products including Teflon.

In late 2005, Dr. Oliaei Fardin found dangerous levels of PFC's in the

Mississippi River downstream from a 3M Corporation's dumping site in

Minnesota.

3M had been dumping 50,000 pounds of the toxic chemical in the river

every year, in a heavily populated metropolitan area, where the river

serves as the main drinking water source. PFCs have caused birth

defects and deaths in animal studies and are considered a likely human

carcinogen. Fardin, a scientist at the Minnesota Pollution Control

Agency, found levels of PFCs in the area's fish that were the highest

ever discovered in the world.

Following her discovery, she was unable to get the state to issue a

public health advisory, as would normally be required by law. After

she filed a federal whistleblower's lawsuit against the agency, Fardin

was forced to resign by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's

Commissioner, a former Executive of the 3M chemical company.

Her research, which has now been halted, would have helped assess how

far downstream the chemical contamination had traveled in the

Mississippi River, one of the nation's largest waterways and municipal

water sources. Please send a letter to the EPA, MPCA, and Governor

Pawlenty demanding the 3M Corporation be fined for chemical cleanup

costs. "