Families in Northwest Georgia spent years drinking, cooking, and making sweet tea with tap water they said was quietly contaminated by toxic “forever chemicals,” The Associated Press reported. Residents accuse state officials of failing to warn them as PFAS pollution spread through rivers, drinking water, and even their bodies.
PFAS are a large group of chemicals that have been linked in research to health problems, including thyroid disease, liver damage, and some cancers, though individual illnesses can be difficult to trace to a single source.
An investigation by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the AP, and Frontline found that Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division largely did not act on mounting evidence of PFAS contamination, even as scientists, neighboring Alabama regulators, and federal officials raised alarms. Residents said that the delay may have left them exposed for decades…