I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of big corporation’s playing Russian roulette with our health. It is nice to hear that at least one person in authority wanted to do the right thing. That person was a doctor by the name of Fardin Oliaei, who is a research scientist that works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
Who and what she was trying expose were made even harder by her superiors, who tried to stop her, according to Doctor Oliaei. “They lost all of their professional integrity and have become a battering ram for a totally corrupted system. They abused their authority so much that they have used their entire weight of the state machinery to crush one individual,” said Doctor Oliaei.
What the doctor discovered was the alarming high levels of the toxic chemical called perfluorochemical compounds (PFCs) in the livers of small mouth bass living in the Mississippi River. What is interesting about her findings is where the chemical came from. The culprit is none other than 3M, whose plant is located near the contaminated fish site. This chemical was used in the manufacture of products that we all know as Scotchgard, Teflon, Stainmaster and Gore-Tex. Although 3M began phasing out the utilization of the chemical in 2000, they have managed to dump as much as 50,000 pounds of the chemical per year into the Mississippi River from its Cottage Grove wastewater treatment plant.
I bet you are all wondering what the ramifications are to our health? Well, how about the fact that PFCs are classified as toxic and have caused birth defects and deaths in animal studies for starters. The chemicals are bio-accumulated in living tissue, do not break down in the environment, and tend to concentrate in blood and liver tissues of fish and mammals (including humans). “These disturbing fish contamination findings should be of concern not only to Minnesota fisherman and hunters, but to everyone downstream as well, stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization is providing legal representation to Doctor Oliaei. “These findings underline how quickly new chemicals introduced into the stream of American commerce end up n our bloodstream.” Thank you, 3M!
If all of that is not enough to make you as mad as I am, then listen to the rest of the story; Sheryl Corrigan, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Commissioner is a former 3M executive, who has attempted to impede further investigations into the chemicals. That didn’t stop Doctor Oliaei, who filed whistleblower and First Amendment suits over obstruction of her research and her ability to publicly report findings. Good for you, Doctor Oliaei!