B.C. LAUNCHES CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT AGAINST MANUFACTURERS OF ‘FOREVER CHEMICALS’

This article was written by the Canadian Press and was published in the Globe & Mail on June 22, 2024.

The B.C. government has filed a class-action lawsuit against manufacturers of socalled “forever chemicals,” involved in what it calls widespread contamination of drinking-water systems.

Attorney-General Niki Sharma says the province is the first Canadian jurisdiction to sue makers of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS chemicals.

B.C. has filed similar classaction lawsuits in the past, targeting tobacco manufacturers in 1998 and opioid makers in 2018 to recover health care costs associated with those substances.

Ms. Sharma says in a statement that the province is filing the lawsuit to “ensure that companies that created the problem, and profited from these chemicals, pay their fair share.”

The lawsuit targets 12 companies that include firms associated with the chemical giants 3M, DuPont and BASF.

It says the defendants knew that when their products were used as directed, “toxic PFAS chemicals would be released, would contaminate the environment for centuries, and would pose significant threats to human health.”

According to the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, exposure to PFAS products may lead to childhood obesity, weakened immune systems and certain types of cancer.

Author: Ray Nakano

Ray is a retired, third generation Japanese Canadian born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. He resides in Toronto where he worked for the Ontario Government for 28 years. Ray was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh in 2011 and practises in the Plum Village tradition, supporting sanghas in their mindfulness practice. Ray is very concerned about our climate crisis. He has been actively involved with the ClimateFast group (https://climatefast.ca) for the past 5 years. He works to bring awareness of our climate crisis to others and motivate them to take action. He has created the myclimatechange.home.blog website, for tracking climate-related news articles, reports, and organizations. He has created mobilizecanada.ca to focus on what you can do to address the climate crisis. He is always looking for opportunities to reach out to communities, politicians, and governments to communicate about our climate crisis and what we need to do. He says: “Our world is in dire straits. We have to bend the curve on our heat-trapping pollutants in the next few years if we hope to avoid the most serious impacts of human-caused global warming. Doing nothing is not an option. We must do everything we can to create a livable future for our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations.”