PFAS

B.C. could soon become the first province to partially ban a group of cancer-causing chemicals used in everything from firefighting equipment to makeup. Tabled by BC Green MLA Adam Olsen, the proposed law would ban per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) chemicals in the firefighting equipment used by the province's professional and volunteer fire crews. 

Environmentalists, Inuit and firefighters are urging the federal government to list a group of harmful chemicals as toxic under Canada's environmental protection laws because they can increase cancer risks and other health risks and linger in ecosystems for decades. 

Canada's National Observer presents The Poison Detectives Episode 2 — Who’s Minding the Store?

The research by the James Hutton Institute in Aberdeen and the University of Graz in Austria has found that 14 different types of PFAS chemicals, which are commonly used in ski wax, were found in soils at family skiing spots in the Austrian Alps.