Jason Moon

Okay, let's step back for a moment.

Maybe you've heard the saying, the dose makes the poison.

Doses of PFOA are measured in parts per trillion.

You're going to hear parts per trillion a lot in this podcast, sorry.

The comparison used most often is that one part per trillion is like a droplet in about 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

It's like one second in 31,546 years.

Tiny, right?

But you know what they say about the little things.

Remember at the time all this was going down in Merrimack the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency didn't have official regulations or limits for how much PFOA could be in drinking water.

But they did put out some guidance.

It shifted around over the course of 2016 from 400 parts per trillion to 70 parts per trillion.

In Merrimack, St.

Gobain's PFOA testing on the town's public water was coming back at about 30 parts per trillion.

So, all good, right?

But next door in Vermont, their standard was 20 parts per trillion.

That was confusing.

Then there's the fact that PFOA bioaccumulates.

That means it builds up in your body over time if you keep ingesting it.

Like a bathtub with a clogged drain.