00:00Today's the second day of a public hearing into PFAS, also known as forever chemicals,
00:07which experts have said are potentially cancer-causing chemicals found in firefighting foam and
00:13everyday products in the environment.
00:15The second day's hearing was held in Penrith and residents in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury
00:21have come together for a roundtable discussion to discuss the implications of contamination.
00:27In June it was revealed that drinking water in areas in and around the Blue Mountains
00:32had dangerously high levels of PFAS.
00:35The federal inquiry today heard that residents in impacted areas felt that their concerns
00:40had been downplayed and that their calls for help had been brushed off by the government.
00:46Here's what one resident had to say.
00:48We're now in a situation where we now know pretty much for sure that people in the Blue
00:53Mountains have been drinking unsafe levels of PFAS contaminated drinking water out of
00:59their taps for 32 years.
01:02What we now want New South Wales Health to do and the New South Wales Health Minister
01:05to lead this, is to have widespread blood testing of people in the Blue Mountains to
01:11check that the cholesterol levels aren't excessively high amongst the general population.
01:17This follows yesterday's hearing in Nowra, a city in New South Wales' south coast, where
01:22residents and a medical expert heard that members of an Aboriginal community had been
01:27victims of a cancer cluster because of PFAS contamination that was caused by the Department
01:34of Defence.
01:35The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority CEO Tony Chappell stressed the importance
01:40of coordinated efforts between the Commonwealth and state governments.
01:44Everyone has a role to play in PFAS.
01:46The Commonwealth government and the states have been working closely together to phase
01:50it out from our economy from 1 July, which is very pleasing.
01:54It will be prohibited to import or sell or manufacture products containing the most common
01:59PFAS and PFOS chemicals.
02:02This week's public hearings were chaired by Senator Lydia Thorpe and we also heard from
02:06her at the conclusion of the inquiry today.
02:09Visiting Wreck Bay and staying with community over the last four days has just been shocking
02:18to see so many families affected by this forever chemical, PFAS, this man-made chemical
02:26that is literally poisoning people.
02:29There will be more hearings in the coming months and this federal inquiry comes alongside
02:34a New South Wales inquiry that is ongoing.
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