In the introduction to Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin’s new book, Poisoning The Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America, the authors cite an alarming statistic from 2015 that PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are present in the bodies of an estimated 97% of Americans. How did we ever get to this point? Their book is an attempt to explain that history, and to highlight those resisting the seeming inevitability of PFAS.

“I think we have the corporate cover-up and awareness on both the corporations’ and government’s part for decades upon decades,” said Udasin. “But we also see the power of regular people to effect change, to really bring about what politicians are not necessarily willing to do.”

The book tells stories of people deeply affected by ingesting PFAS, and the saga of how companies have been able to continue to churn out hundreds of different chemicals under the banner of PFAS, despite the risks and harms to human health. It is estimated that there may be at least 15,000 types of PFAS. 

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“These products are useful — waterproof stuff is nice to have, and there are other uses like medical and military uses that are very important,” said Frazin. “You know, preventing jet fuel fires is essential. But the price that we pay for all of that is the contamination in these communities.”

Udasin and Frazin, both reporters for The Hill, fanned out into four communities in the U.S. – in Alabama, Colorado, Maine and North Carolina. In Alabama, they found people ingesting industrial PFAS emanating from the very locations that employed them. In Maine, PFAS-contaminated sludge was spread over farmland.

“Colorado is a story of military contamination, in which area installations released PFAS-laden firefighting foam into the environment, enabling the chemicals to make their way into groundwater and then in the faucets of unsuspecting residents,” said Udasin.

In Alabama, Udasin said, “The death was so visible.” A key figure in the book is Brenda Hampton, an Alabama native who developed life-threatening illnesses that doctors suspected could be linked to toxic chemical exposure. “Brenda’s ‘death tour’ through the tiny twin towns of Courtland and North Courtland was particularly striking to me, because the extent of the damage was visible in such a compact space,” Udasin said.

New book spotlights ‘forever chemicals’ in North Alabama: ‘I know I’m facing death.’ www.al.com/news/huntsvi…

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— Sharon Udasin (@sharonudasin.bsky.social) April 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM

Udasin’s reporting also helped reveal the ugly underside to rural areas of New England.

“Seeing the livelihoods of farmers ripped apart in the deceptively beautiful landscape of South and Central Maine allowed me to connect with both the people and natural beauty of that place — a place teeming with chemical contamination beneath its historic New England charm,” she said.

Alongside local reporting, the authors pored through documents looking for what Frazin called “needles in the haystack,” to unearth moments when companies – or the government – were aware of the potential toxic effects of PFAS but debated how to release that information.

“I believe we did have some original finds, including a document I dug up at the National Archives,” Frazin said, “where a doctor told the FDA that one of his patients who worked with Teflon was experiencing ‘angina-like’ symptoms. This document says the patient’s foreman told him the symptoms were caused by Teflon and that they all know about it.

“The corporations definitely had evidence of the adverse health impacts and ubiquity of PFAS for decades and still manufactured and sold PFAS-containing products,” she added.

Finds like these are highlighted throughout the book and tell the long and complicated story of the expansion of these “forever chemicals” into the world. The stories of death and illness are heartbreaking. But what Udasin and Frazin also discovered was that the crusade to break the hold of PFAS has become an ad-hoc national movement.

“I do think it’s become a grassroots national movement,” Udasin said, “because even all these local activists, they all know each other now, and they have created the National PFAS Coalition.

“When Brenda had her latest health incident, they were all from different sides of the country, getting together to check on her because they have created a national activist movement.”

Drinking water standards vary widely from state-to-state, which “creates an environmental justice issue, in which certain communities are less protected than others, through no fault of their own,” Udasin noted.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has currently issued PFAS drinking water regulations. Frazin said that “this rule is a massive deal that is likely to lead many communities to filter out PFAS from their drinking water. It would not be subject to enforcement yet because the rule first required water utilities to test for PFAS and then to install filters if it found levels of one of a few PFAS above a certain threshold.”

On top of this, Frazin noted that the Trump administration has reduced the types of PFAS that will be covered by this rule and that implementation will be delayed until 2031. Which, as Udasin noted, puts the onus more on states, “given the Trump administration’s decision to rescind and reconsider existing rules on drinking water standards.”

When it comes to the regulation of “forever chemicals,” it’s “just a big unanswered question whether this administration and this EPA is going to be serious about enforcing anything,” a former EPA official told ProPublica.

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— ProPublica (@propublica.org) July 8, 2025 at 11:01 AM

But the movement to improve drinking water standards — and decrease threats to human health — persists.

“I think that what I see is maybe the biggest difference between this movement and some of the other historical examples like movements on climate change or tobacco,” said Frazin, “is the media attention and the level of awareness. And so that’s what we’re trying to do – we’re trying to bring that attention to this issue. This issue has not received the attention it deserves.”

And Udasin noted that science might one day break the “unbreakable” chemical bonds that make up PFAS and perhaps reduce their toxic impact.

“I have a lot of hope in the science and technology that are actually currently being developed,” she said. “There are these brilliant scientists all over the world right now who in their laboratories are actually breaking apart the PFAS. A few of them are starting to be at commercial scale, or at least pilot-level commercial scale. So that gives me some hope that at least there may be a solution to getting rid of these at some point. And it’s not in the too-distant future.”

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Jean-Marc Jancovici is a well-known lecturer in France, and on YouTube, on the topics of energy and climate change. He focuses on the deep history and interconnections of the Earth’s consumption apparatus – how things are made, what things are made of, how energy is created, distributed and burned, and how the energy needs of the future should be met.

Christophe Blain is a French graphic artist known for his humorous historical works, most notably Weapons of Mass Diplomacy. But a few years ago, he was struck by current events in his home country.

“In the summer of 2018, there were severe heat waves,” Blain said. “I realized they were linked to global warming. I said to myself, ‘This is it, we’re here.’ I was very anxious for a year.”

He began talking to his brother to see what could be done. His brother had been following Jancovici’s lectures for more than ten years, and recommended that Blain watch a few and possibly make a connection with Jancovici.

“My brother told me, ‘Make an album (book) with Jean-Marc.’ I immediately replied, ‘I know. But it’s going to be hard.’ He said, ‘Do you have a choice?’ Five minutes later, I wrote an e-mail to Jean-Marc.”

The result of this meeting of minds is World Without End, a full-length graphic book that melds Jancovici’s words with Blain’s vibrant and comical illustrations to tell the story of energy: where we’ve been, and where we might be headed. It’s a long-form book version of one of his lectures, rich in data, theory and commentary, propelled by Blain’s unique method of visual storytelling in which a reader never gets lost or overwhelmed. The book has been a sensation in France, selling more than a million copies, and a translated version has been released in the U.S.

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Blain shared some answers with EcoWatch via e-mail.

How and why did the book become so popular in France?

On social networks, I noticed that the people who followed Jean-Marc all wanted to pass on his thoughts and make him known. As if it were a vital necessity. I felt the same way.

I said to myself: a book is an object that’s easier to transmit than a conference. You can take your time to fully understand what’s at stake. What happened was exactly what I’d hoped: the people who read it wanted to give it away and pass it on.

How collaborative was the illustration / text process?

We’d meet up with Jean-Marc, and he’d use his courses, his conferences and the research he was doing with his company, Carbone 4. I’d ask him lots of questions, we’d comment on current events, and I’d take lots of notes. Then I’d work alone to transform my notes into a storyboard. We’d meet up again and correct my storyboard. Then we’d start again.

What kind of challenges were there illustrating the topic of energy, energy history and climate?

Jean-Marc is an extraordinary teacher. He uses lots of poetic, amusing images to explain sometimes complex concepts. If you don’t understand one image, he uses another. He always gets it right in the end. And everything becomes luminous. He makes you smart.

I love using images to explain sometimes abstract concepts. I do it a lot in my work. I love drawing crazy, poetic images, a bit psychedelic, to talk about something complex and subtle. Jean-Marc and I understand each other very well. We had a lot of fun together.

You choose visual “comedy” to move some sections forward – it helps to move through some quite depressing facts – how did you manage to juxtapose some of the bleaker facts with these kind of cartoony “jokes”?

Because I’m a funny guy. And I like to laugh at my anxieties. And because the book had to be fun. Always fluid, always hyper-understandable. This album is about serious, complex things. But I’ve worked very hard to make it easy to read.

As you were illustrating the book, what things did you learn?

I learned a lot from Jean-Marc’s own attitude. He’s been fighting this battle for years. His patience, energy and determination fascinate me. I’d often get angry at what I thought was idiotic behavior, in the face of the challenges facing all humanity. Jean-Marc brought me back to reason and patience, not to waste my energy in anger but to train my mind to find the right arguments.

What did you learn about the importance of energy?

I’ve learned that our way of life, even if we don’t see it, even if we don’t realize it, requires a colossal use of energy, of the Earth’s resources.

The details about the toothpaste tube and the smart phone, and the massive apparatus needed to create these ubiquitous objects… these were eye-opening to me. How did you feel learning that?

I felt that we live in a more fragile world than we think. That many details of our daily lives, which seem obvious and unchanging, can disappear faster than we think.

Was it surprising to you to see that “organic” is just a label that really has little impact on the deep underlying problems with the agricultural industry?

This is true for many other aspects. We live on heavy industry. A few organic beans are a good thing. But you have to look at the whole production chain, which produces for the masses, for millions of people, using colossal resources.

How was this book “therapy” for you? (On page 133, Blain talks about his recurring dreams of a nuclear accident.)

Jean-Marc told me that once you start looking into these problems, researching and working on them, you can’t stop. It’s a constant therapy through action. Understanding is the first and most important step. Even if you don’t know how to act right away. We change in spite of ourselves. We look at our surroundings differently. And then, little by little, we take action, in our daily lives or on a wider scale.

For example, we gradually stop wanting the same things. You organize your life differently. You have to accept that this is a step-by-step process. Not a radical revolution that will solve all problems.

Compared to your other work, how does World Without End fit in?

My vision of the world is different and I can’t go back. And I’m continuing to work with Jean-Marc.

Any other final words?

I sincerely hope to find an American audience who will welcome us. Not just because it would bring us success, but obviously because the USA has an extremely powerful influence on the world. I’ve traveled there several times. It’s a country that fascinates me.

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Recent research from Waterkeeper Alliance warns that 98% of tested waterways across 19 states contain PFAS, and the problem is particularly noticeable in areas downstream from water treatment plants and sites where biosolids are applied.

According to a new report, the PFAS Report Phase II, 95% of sampling sites that were downstream from wastewater treatment plants and 80% of samples downstream from biosolids sites had higher concentrations of multiple PFAS.

“There is no denying that PFAS contamination is a national crisis. Our latest sampling confirms that it’s widespread and persistent, threatening waterways and public health across the country,” Marc Yaggi, CEO of Waterkeeper Alliance, said in a statement. “Local Waterkeepers and partners bring deep local knowledge and dedication to this ongoing effort, helping to fill critical data gaps, driving policy and solutions.”

PFAS at one site downstream from a water treatment plant increased nearly 3,000% to 228.29 parts per trillion (ppt), according to the report. The PFAS level at one site downstream from a biosolids site increased 5,100%, reaching 106.1 ppt.

Further, the levels of PFAS found in samples from all water treatment plants and 90% of biosolids sites exceeded 1 ppt, a safety limit set by the Environmental Working Group. PFOA and PFOS, which may be linked to higher risks of cancer and birth defects, were also found to exceed the federal thresholds for drinking water in some samples.

The report revealed the most contaminated river as the Pocotaligo River, located in South Carolina. Lack of limits on wastewater discharge contributed to the contamination here, The State reported.

“PFAS can contaminate our water, soil, air, and evidence suggests that it is linked to several diseases and health risks,” said Vanessa Muñoz, waterways program manager at Hispanic Access Foundation. “But what is often overlooked is who is being exposed to it and why, and unfortunately Latino and other communities of color are disproportionately faced to bear the burden.”

The research builds upon a previous report, the PFAS Report Phase I published in 2022, which revealed PFAS contamination in 83% of tested waterways.

Last month, a study detected PFAS in private wells in Pennsylvania, and a previous report from the Environmental Working Group estimated that PFAS contamination from biosolids, or sewage sludge, was impacting as many as 20 million acres of crops in the U.S.

Despite growing research on the widespread contamination of PFAS and links between PFAS and negative health outcomes, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced considerations for “regulatory flexibility” on PFAS standards.

In response, Waterkeeper Alliance is calling on the EPA to establish and enforce federal standards for PFAS in drinking water and surface water discharges; ban PFAS-contaminated biosolids from being applied on land; regulate PFAS by class than individual compounds; and prioritize and improve monitoring and treatment efforts and funding.

“Currently, there is little accountability for PFAS entering our environment and water through poorly regulated pathways,” Yaggi said. “American communities are exposed daily, often unknowingly, and many face serious, disproportionate health risks. The tools to address this crisis exist, but the political will is lacking. We cannot afford more watered-down regulations and loopholes for industrial source polluters. The science is clear: EPA and lawmakers must act decisively, and with urgency, in the public’s interest.”

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