Just watch out for the elevated Blue Green Algae levels
Yet Defence at its many RAAF bases has contaminated neighbouring Aussie residents with imported 3M toxic fire-fighting foam. Its proven to be carcenogenic and found in the local groundwater.
The 3M product ‘Lightwater’ Firefighting Foam contains seriously wicked shit like poly-fluoroalkyl acid (PFAS), perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), or perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).
In the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory, the drinking water has been contaminated by use of this at the nearby Tindal RAAF Base and all the above have made their way into the public swimming pool. So don’t put your head under the water, and don’t eat the local fish, or eggs or vegetables because they’ve been irrigated with contaminated bore water.
Locals are feeling crook, and medical checks confirm their blood has “exceedingly high levels” of these toxic chemicals. Katherine’s Gorge Health Services GP Dr Peter John Spafford, has undertaken extensive pathology testing on affected local residents. He’s found and reported traces of the toxins in local residents’ blood at 40 times “safe levels”. He said one Katherine resident who drank water from a bore, had a PFOS recording so high it was “unreadable, off the charts”
Nice.
3M knows its poisonous manufactured aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) causes cancers, ADHD and poor brain development. Scientific tests show that PFOS, PFOA, and PFNA exposure in zebrafish embryos caused changes in gene expression, and morphological and behavioral effects.
Studies done also show that the chemicals have a half-life of seven to eight years in humans and just 24 hours in rats – as good as RatSak.
Like Agent Orange and Gulf War Illness, the Australian Defence Force knew about the toxicity of the 3M firefighting foam in 1987. It knew the foam was harmful to the fire firefighters and caused toxic waste, but hey it puts out fires so who gives a crap?
What’s a bit of poly-fluoroalkyl acid leaching into groundwater and waters supply? It’s just like a bit of depleted uranium – occurs naturally, in wars zones anyway.
Payne’s at pains to say “prove it causes cancer. I wanna see some deaths and deformed bubs first!”
Samantha and Jamie Kelly with baby William on contaminated property behind their home at Williamtown, north of Newcastle in NSW.
The US Environmental Protection Agency in 2000 warned ADF about its use of 3M Lightwater Firefighting Foam. The US EPA wrote officially to the ADF on 16 May 2000, warning:
“It (Pfas) appears to combine persistence, bioaccumulation, and toxicity properties to an extraordinary degree.”
So Defence in 2004 switched to da lite version, Ansul’s ‘Ansulite‘, some four years to get off the mark.
Yet Ansulite firefighting foam still contains the toxic perfluorinated compound. In 2010 it was phased out at all civilian airports by Airservices Australia, the company which provides firefighting services at airports and air bases, because of health concerns. Airservices Australia instead uses ‘Solberg RF6‘ firefighting foam.
But hey, that also contains the toxic perfluorinated compound.
Research commissioned by Defence in 2012 found Solberg RF6 was even more toxic than Ansulite! A study by the independent Cooperative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment (CRC Care) and tested Solberg and Ansulite on plants and algae.
“We found that Ansulite was less toxic, while Solberg … was found to be more toxic,” CRC Care researcher Professor Megh Mallavarapu said. Professor Mallavarapu also said while Solberg RF6 did not contain PFAS chemicals, its chemical make-up made it more dangerous in the short-term. “The acute toxicity [of Solberg] is also a serious consequence,” he said.
Defence deputy secretary, Steve Grzeskowiak, conceded past practices in handling the foam were “not good” in the 1980s and 1990s.
“I think today with the knowledge that we have, we’d have done things differently. I think of that there’s no doubt. I think if we had our time again, should we have told the community back in 2012, from the middle of 2012, we probably should.”
Yet Defence has keep using the crap irrespective, because it puts out fires.
EPA branches around the nation all knew, but locals were not told until 2015, so now their all contaminated. So are the firefighters.
Feeling guilty, Canberra has been shipping in drinking water to the town, and has ordered a new water-treatment facility to treat contaminated bore water, which combines with river water to create the town’s drinking supply.
So how has Defence Munster Marise Payne acted?
Well, once back from her extravagant taxpayer junket around France, she gets the manufacturer to test the pollution, which concludes all ok, so buy more.
Yet thousands of Aussie neighbourhoods around the RAAF’s dozen bases around the nation have been deemed cancer clusters and their homes 3M condemned and valued as worthless:
- Darwin
- Tindal
- East Sale
- Williamtown
- Edinburgh
- Katherine
- Oakey
- Albatross
- Pearce
- Amberley
- Maryborough
- Richmond
Trust the ADF?
Defence minute: “Suck it up like in Vietnam.”
Taxpayer Leech Test: Marise Payne
- Liberal Party apparatchik since 1982 Arts-Law graduate – never had a real job
- Undemocratically parachuted into Senate without merit
- Morbidly obese and unfit for public life given chronic lap-banding, psycho-mental health dysfunctia
- No military or fitness service, and so basically a NFI preaching Womble
- AWOL most of the time.
“I can eat what I like now, and no-one can tell”