Stonewalling bureaucracies cannot turn customary blind eye to new PFAS research

Health and defence authorities have long resolutely rejected the link between PFAS contamination and a cancer cluster at Williamtown RAAF airbase. But now, University of Newcastle research has found levels of the so-called “forever chemicals” in the contamination zone considered enough to significantly alter male reproductive health in animals.

Researchers exposed male mice to PAS-contaminated water at the same concentration found in a well at Williamtown and the university said the findings echoed human studies showing lower sperm counts in men with high PFAS exposure. The researchers suggest that paternal PFAS exposure alone could have consequences for children, even if the children themselves were not directly exposed.

The changes included a fall in male hormones including both testosterone and dihydrotestosterone, which is vital for sperm production. They also included a decrease in day-to-day sperm production, meaning the mice were less fertile.

The research was published in the journal Communication Biology and adds to concerns in Williamtown about long-term impacts on health.

Co-author Dr Jacinta Martin said there had been decades of debates about conflicting scientific literature and the argument whether PFAS in the environment was highly diluted and not a risk to people. “If we can take away all the excuses that [research] doesn’t perfectly mimic what’s going on outside, then maybe what we could find might help fill that gap, and we’ll be able to better actually provide information or knowledge to these individuals who are making these big decisions,” Martin said.

PFAS have received bad press since 1998 when 3M admitted to US regulators that PFAS had entered the blood of people worldwide, but the news was kept quiet until the company settled a mammoth lawsuit for $16 billion in 2023.

The Herald played a leading role in bringing the threat posed by PFAS to public attention beginning in 2016 when we revealed some 50 cancer cases over 15 years on a five-kilometre stretch of road in Williamtown near Newcastle. We also rang the alarm bell over 90 sites around Australia being investigated by authorities for contamination by PFAS chemicals.

Our investigative reporter Carrie Fellner was working in Newcastle and first joined the PFAS trail when the Williamtown story broke. She has pursued the unfolding story of contamination, cancer, cover-up and corporate malfeasance affecting the Indigenous community of Wreck Bay on the NSW South Coast. Last year, she revealed PFAS were present in Blue Mountain water supplies and exposed Sydney’s water authorities’ shameful attempts to keep the problem away from the public gaze.

Publication of the study follows a Legislative Council committee inquiry last September into PFAS contamination across NSW which found a worrying lack of effective collaboration between Canberra and Macquarie Street in managing PFAS contamination.

The new research adds to scientific evidence confirming the deadliness of PFAS. But the denial, obscuration and begrudging transparency that has accompanied every PFAS revelation must end. This time, stonewalling bureaucracies cannot turn their customary blind eye, but be upfront and open to research that raises new questions.

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