#rollbacks on safety

[feminist-space]

Anti-mask policies and decision makers are using the momentum of anti-masking in the context of covid to also prevent people from accessing or using respirators to protect their breathing and lungs from other hazards -- things that were accepted in many industries as standard safety protocols before 2020.

"“During his first week, Complainant started coughing up black phlegm, his throat and tongue would burn, and he began having breathing problems due to excessive smoke and fumes from the cupola. He notified Sturgeon but nothing changed, and he was not provided a respirator.”

After not receiving a respirator, the lawsuit said the man went to the dispensary room and picked up a respirator himself.

He wore the respirator for the next week until the lawsuit said the safety supervisor saw him wearing it and “immediately became very upset; he rudely admonished the Complainant in front of his co-workers for wearing the respirator and demanded that he take it off immediately.”

According to the lawsuit, he told the safety supervisor he did not feel safe doing his job without it and was pulled into a meeting the next day where he was told he would not be allowed to wear a respirator.

...

After the meeting, the complaint said he was assigned to shovel gravel for the day before going home for the weekend at the end of his shift. On Monday, his employment was terminated.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) opened an investigation into the company after learning of the alleged retaliation, and the DOL said in a statement that OSHA investigators with the Whistleblower’s Protection Program found the company violated federal protections by terminating the employee who exercised their protected rights to request protective equipment."

[alwaysbewoke]

i guess we're starting to see why the gop want to outlaw abortion smfh

[justsaying4041]

Infrastructure Vision: Project 2025's Plans for Transportation Systems

The transportation system in the United States faces significant challenges: aging infrastructure, traffic congestion, environmental concerns, and a rising demand for efficient mobility options. Project 2025’s vision for the nation’s transportation networks outlines ambitious goals, aiming to overhaul and modernize systems across the country. However, as with many large-scale reforms, there are…

[thelastharbinger]

So...H5N1 (Bird Flu) is here

And all signs are pointing to a global pandemic more fatal than the one prior. The initial stages of this are a rinse and repeat of Covid-19's arrival, which saw a lot of state repression of information on the severity of infection rates and delayed enforcement of safety protocols.

Earlier this year, the U.S. saw its first death of an animal-to-human transmission of H5N1 in Louisiana; however with the rollback of safety and health federal regulations in the wake of the returning Trump administration, compounded by an executive-mandated communications blackout of the FDA, CDC and withdrawal from the WHO, conditions are ideal for a nightmarish outbreak scenario should transmissions evolve to human-to-human.

The following are reports coming from the U.K., U.S., and China in the last couple of days:

This is a CDC report from 2 weeks ago:

"As of January 6, 2025, there have been 66 confirmed human cases of H5N1 bird flu in the United States since 2024 and 67 since 2022. This is the first person in the United States who has died as a result of an H5 infection. Outside the United States, more than 950 cases of H5N1 bird flu have been reported to the World Health Organization; about half of those have resulted in death."

As of right now, I would highly implore everyone to cease the consumption of eggs and poultry products for the time being. There is currently an egg shortage due to "quality standards" in the U.S. and prices have already gone up dramatically. Get involved in community gardens and get in contact with local farmers--see what you can get directly from there! Mask up, update your vaccinations, practice proper hygiene, avoid physical contact with wild animals (birds especially), and stay safe! Look after your neighbors!

UPDATE: Weekend of 1/24 - 1/26/2025

Related: As of 1/26/25

- Kansas, USA is experiencing its highest record cases of tuberculosis in its entire history!

- New case of Polio recorded in Afghanistan

- India saw its first death in 101 confirmed cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (16 people are on ventilators)

A warmer planet is only going to exacerbate the spread of diseases worldwide moving forward. Mask up!

[wiisagi-maiingan]

Genuine question, does anyone happen to have reliable info on how the Biden administration has tried to rollback the food safety standard cuts made during the Trump administration? I know that they couldn't all be brought back, because putting those standards into place is a lot harder than getting rid of them, but I haven't seen much of anything about it since Biden was elected.

[xclowniex]

One of the biggest reasons why I hate the "we are not free until all of us are free" thing being used to justify why people didn't vote is that not voting actually did the opposite of freeing people.

Like firstly, Kamala has a better policy surronding Israel and Palestine than Trump. Like Trump has picked Mike Huckabee as the U.S ambassador to Israel. And he isn't even just pro Israel, he is actively anti Palestine

Secondly, trump becoming president again means less freedom for queer people in general but also specifically trans folk.

Thirdly, this immigration policies are shit

And there are so many other examples I could point out.

Kamala provided better policies. Minorities would be more safe under Kamala.

Yet people decided to wager the safety and freedom of all minorities in the US because they didn't like all of Kamala's policies.

None of us are free till all of us are free does not mean take a bajillon steps backwards for the rights of everyone on the off chance one group gets more freedom.

[onlytiktoks]

[sunny-day-jack-official]

Sunny Day Jack -- A Difficult Update/Setback

Hello everyone.

It is with great unfortunate sadness that after many months of trying to work with our current programmer for Something’s Wrong with Sunny Day Jack, we have had to make the difficult decision to terminate their working relationship with them.

This isn’t a choice made or taken lightly. We understand that doing so comes with a great amount of disappointment, and an attempt was made to do our best to withstand the situation because we knew that either way, it would be the disappointment of you all– or our health and safety.

We’ve made posts to social media before today, but now we will be going into a smaller bit of depth to the best of our ability. 

After coming onto the project in 2023, a series of negative interactions began between Us (the affected) and the programer. The programmer was brought on by former management at the time quickly, and with little integration.

Issues had cropped up at the time, chief among the affected being creator Sauce. It was around this time that the HimboEngine was created between older management and this programmer. And work on the engine, to the best of our knowledge, began. 

There had been at the time an internal push not to use this engine and revert to the originally promised one by creator, Sauce. And while we understand that the core drive was to make the game as accessible as possible to as many computers as possible, as well as to create a superiorly programmed product– it was only programmed in or by the programmer and one other person.

By that point, the push to resume working in NaniNovel continued. However, we were told that too much had been completed in Himbo and it was not financially viable to roll production back.

When prior management left in 2023, we continued to work with this programmer under the continued understanding that considerable work had been done.

However, issues still occurred. And there were instances of inappropriate treatment and actions between management and the programmer in question.

Attempts were made for many reasons to accommodate this person, and to allow them to grow and hopefully become aligned with the team’s core values. No persons were forced to work with them, besides management. And management has done their best, to their own ability, to not have to rollback the project and persist.

We are not comfortable releasing the extent of the disagreements and actions that have caused this separation. We have to focus on the future, and those involved in this decision are not comfortable reliving and reiterating the events that took place. 

We know more than anyone it seems that unfortunate things have happened. And we apologize for not holding on any longer. However, we are unable to interact with this person any longer. It is for health reasons– it is for fear of safety reasons– and it is with an unbearably heavy heart.

We must ask any and all fans to please not seek this programmer out. We will not be further releasing their name. To attempt to maliciously contact, find, or “expose” this person would be to go against the affected team member's wishes entirely.

However, this means we are now unable to any longer have access to several resources.

The loss includes:

Any progress on SDJ (builds)

The HIMBO Engine, in its entirety

The current most build of SleepyTime Jack

Access to and ownership of the SnaccPop website

The planning Github, contributed to by other SnaccPop team members

We will probably never get these back.

The programmer has made it clear to us that not only unless we reinstate them, but give to them a position of authority within SnaccPop, that we will never get these back. They have idled the concept of releasing or continuing work on these things without our consent, "for the fans".

We have no clue if this will happen. But in this instance we can say that we do not consent to any unauthorized release of SDJ builds. We do not know what SDJ assets this programmer has or has downloaded, but we are aware they are storing game sensitive information in private storage spaces.

We would advise fans to avoid any SnaccPop website domains or projects not posted by official accounts. And we hope, if Programmer can see this, they will understand that regardless of whether they intended to or not- it is unacceptable, and a choice that will likely reflect deeply on their personal career and something that could potentially blacklist them should other developers come to find out.

Otherwise, while it would be nice to have back these things paid for- the programmer has made it clear they believe this is in the fan's best interest. Hiring them back is a requirement, and they believe that the fans paid for the content, not SnaccPop, so they're under no obligation to return it.

The amount loss totals to several thousands of investment, months of planning and work, and contributions from multiple persons from across the team (consequently, making their work either temporarily or even permanently unusable.)

This is why we were hesitant to make any changes or decisions on the matter. We understand that it might not have been the correct choice to actively degrade our own health for the sake of the project, but the valid disappointment, frustration, and even distrust of fans was something we felt was worth the effort to try to make things better.

It's never an ideal thing to feel you are putting yourself above or before so many people. We had hoped that all these negative experiences were the result of miscommunications or otherwise emotional/personal narratives. But regardless of what they are now, we cannot continue to withstand them. We hit our breaking point.

No personal or individual contractors were made to endure mistreatment, and the affected were content to bear the circumstances while we could. But a point has been reached where we no longer can.

As of now– we are aware this individual is currently attempting to make pledges to the Patreon to further “elaborate”. We are aware they are monitoring our posts on our social media accounts, and we are very much aware they are unhappy with being removed from this position.

All we have to say to this is the following:

Please. Leave us alone. The whole of the SnaccPop team is not comfortable being around you. The SnaccPop team does not feel safe with you around ANY member. And the only reason we will not further elaborate is because we are tired, weary, and want to be left to develop this project in peace.

We don’t want to be around you. And that is OUR choice. You cannot force yourself upon people who do not want to be around you. And if you continue to try, you will never be able to move on.

Please just leave us alone.

–

As for updates, for now? A team of four programmers is assembling the game together. 

We don’t have much to update yet, because we are actively waiting for more concrete information to become clear.

The intentions of a customizable pronoun system are in the works. Those programming are longtime, since-the-beginning fans of the project. The whole of the SnaccPop team has come together under this situation. It’s a sad reason to do so, but we’ve been doing our best.

We still plan to release something by October of this year. And we’re hopeful, because we’re a bunch of fans now working together and collaborating (with pay–) on this project, just like it was always intended to be.

Whatever is released in October will be on Early Access still. And we know it’s been a difficult period of time for the development team AND fans. But we’re going to make the best of the situation.

Again– please do not harass, stalk, “call out”, or “expose” anyone. Do not try to figure out or pass around who Programmer is. 

This entire situation has ultimately been a large drain on the affected persons and we just want to be able to figure out what comes next and how to make the game. We'll answer what we can to the best of our ability.

 Our team will actively be taking a mental health break for the month of June, while management plans and restructures production. Creator Sauce will be picking up any work unable to be performed in order to support the team, for no cost and out of personal passion and a desire to help the team move forwards. But it will NOT help the team at all for this to be reduced to gossip or “drama”.

We are tired. And we are hurting. And we understand the monumental loss AND the disappointment to fans occurring at the same time. The last thing we want or need is to have to relive the situation more than necessary.

Thank you all so much. We are sorry, and we apologize. We did our best.

-SnaccPop Studios / Something’s Wrong with Sunny Day Jack development team.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this New York Times story:

President Trump this week directed 10 federal agencies — including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — to implement a novel procedure to scrap a wide array of longstanding energy and environmental regulations.

He told agencies that oversee everything from gas pipelines to power plants to insert “sunset” provisions that would cause regulations to automatically expire by October 2026. If the agencies wanted to keep a rule, it could only be extended for a maximum of five years at a time.

Experts say the directive faces enormous legal hurdles. But it was one of three executive orders from Mr. Trump on Wednesday in which he declared that he was pursuing new shortcuts to weaken or eliminate regulations.

In another order, he directed a rollback of federal rules that limit the water flow in shower heads with a highly unusual legal justification: Because I say so.

“Notice and comment is unnecessary because I am ordering the repeal,” Mr. Trump’s order said.

Legal experts called that sentence astonishing and contrary to decades of federal law. The 1946 Administrative Procedure Act requires federal agencies to go through a lengthy “notice and comment” process when they issue, revise or repeal major rules, giving the public a chance to weigh in. Agencies that do not follow those procedures often find their actions blocked by the courts.

“On its face, all of this is totally illegal,” said Jody Freeman, the director of the Harvard Law School Environmental and Energy Law Program and a former White House official under President Barack Obama. “Either the real lawyers have left the building or they just don’t care and want to take a flier on all these cases and see if the courts will bite.”

In another order, titled “Directing the Repeal of Unlawful Regulations,” Mr. Trump gave his cabinet secretaries 60 days to identify federal rules they considered unlawful and to make plans to repeal them. The order stated that agency heads could bypass the notice-and-comment process by making use of an exception that experts say is normally reserved for emergencies.

Yet legal experts said that the laws written by Congress that govern how federal agencies can get rid of regulations are quite strict.

Normally, when a federal agency like the E.P.A. issues or changes a regulation, it first publishes a proposed rule and gives the public time to comment. Then agency officials read and respond to the comments, providing detailed evidence to support the changes they want to make and showing that they addressed public concerns. Then, the agency publishes the final rule.

“The Administrative Procedure Act is a boring-sounding law that no one cares about, but we treat it in the legal profession as foundational,” Ms. Freeman said. “It tells the federal government that it is required to do things deliberately, to take public input and to defend its actions as rational. It’s a promise that government can’t be arbitrary.”

There are certain conditions where an agency might be able to bypass certain steps. If, say, it needs to issue emergency regulations on airplane safety.

But the Trump administration appears to be pushing to use this so-called good cause exception to rescind a much wider array of federal rules.

[mariacallous]

Several of the nation’s largest LGBTQ Pride celebrations are down hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate sponsorships this year, with some event organizers saying promised funds have been withdrawn or reduced and others saying they’ve been ghosted by longtime corporate partners.

Pride organizers say some companies fear being targeted by the Trump administration over participation in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, while others are preserving cash in a tumultuous economy.

“I know that they’re facing tough decisions inside those organizations, and I don’t want to call them out. I want to call them in,” Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride, said of disappearing sponsors. “We will remember who stood by us and who didn’t. When it was politically popular, they were lined up.”

Eve Keller, co-president of USA Prides, a national network of LGBTQ Pride organizers,said members across the country have reported receiving significantly less in sponsorship dollars this year.Some of the smaller, rural Prides are down 70% to 90% when compared to the average year, she said.

“We’re trying not to sound a huge alarm or to make this the only focus, but when we are down money, we’re down safety and security and accessibility as well,” she said, adding that most Prides don’t want to make any cuts to their security measures, so instead they are holding fewer and smaller events.

Last month, Pride St. Louis announced Anheuser-Busch declined to sponsor the organization’s annual PrideFest in St. Louis, where the brewing company is based, after a more than 30-year partnership. The announcement also noted that “funding has been coming in well below expectations,” leaving Pride St. Louis more than $150,000 short of last year’s total Pride budget, which organizers told NBC News was about $480,000.

However, on Wednesday, Pride St. Louis’ DEI and outreach director, Jordan Braxton, said the organization made up almost all of that deficit with an outpouring of individual donations. The loss of the Anheuser-Busch partnership is still “devastating,” Braxton said, because it sends a hurtful message to the community that the company’s support is dependent on who is president.

[estera-shirin]

So I haven’t posted about the DC shooting because I’ve been processing it all. The violence. The reaction from the (non-Jewish) public. My own tangle of feelings.

Multiple things can be true at the same time. Here are the ones that are keeping me up at night:

- This shooting killed Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, two attendees of an event at a Jewish museum. It has made many Jews (myself included) scared to attend other Jewish community events.

- This shooting, despite the apparent intentions of the shooter, is not going to free Palestine. If anything, it will provide the government with a greater reason to crack down on any pro-Palestine activity, including peaceful protest. It also does not help Palestinians.

- Many Jews are rightfully afraid.

- Many non-Jews are responding with glee and support.

- Acts of violence like this are not surprising when Jewish safety is used as a pretense for massive violence against Palestinians in Gaza and a rollback of civil rights in the US. Using Jews as scapegoats does not make us safer—the opposite is true.

- The victims worked for the Israeli embassy (in low level positions), for a government which is credibly committing war crimes in Gaza.

- It is not clear if the shooter knew that or was simply targeting any attendee of this event, which was for young Jewish diplomats and professionals.

- The distinction between civilians and combatants is essential. These staffers were civilians. One can disagree morally with their careers working for the Israeli government, but that does not make it acceptable to kill them. Especially given that they as individuals had very little power over the war crimes Israel is committing in Gaza.

- They were people who had whole lives and hopes and futures.

- Their lives and deaths are being reported on far more than most of the thousands of Palestinians being killed in Gaza ever will be. There is an economy of grievability here that is difficult to ignore.

- The people of Gaza are starving. They need food and other humanitarian aid. Any discussion of freeing Palestine (particularly for those of us outside of the land who are not Palestine) needs to address this as a primary, if not THE primary, issue.

- As Sanhedrin 37a teaches, every life is an entire world.

[cosmicretreat]

Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” isn’t just about tax cuts it quietly guts federal protections and reshapes entire agencies. Here’s what’s buried inside:

Closure of the U.S. Department of Education

25% expansion of logging in national forests, bypassing environmental reviews and fast-tracking timber production

Rollbacks on clean energy incentives, cutting tax credits for EVs and renewables, gutting key climate provisions

More public lands opened up for drilling, mining, and logging, with royalty breaks for fossil fuel companies

Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, ending U.S. participation in global climate efforts

Executive Order 14215, forcing independent federal agencies to follow White House legal interpretations and centralizing authority under the presidency

Pension changes for federal workers hired before 2014, cutting take-home pay by raising required contributions, reducing future payouts, and eliminating early retirement supplements

REINS Act-style regulation repeal, where major federal rules expire unless Congress re-approves them every 5 years allowing Trump to quietly erase protections without rewriting laws

Expanded executive control over agency budgets, allowing the White House to move federal funds internally without explicit congressional approval

Restoration of impoundment powers, giving Trump the ability to block or delay spending already passed by Congress reviving powers stripped after Watergate

Creation of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), placing White House–aligned teams inside every federal agency with access to internal systems and influence over hiring and daily operations

Sharp cuts in regulatory enforcement, with agencies like the EPA, CFPB, and Labor and Transportation Departments halting enforcement of key safety, environmental, and anti-discrimination rules

Trump’s personal control over economic policy, strengthening his power to direct tariffs, pressure private companies, and dictate pricing with little resistance treating the U.S. economy like his own business This bill isn’t just “big.” It’s a roadmap for dismantling oversight, hollowing out federal protections, and handing Trump sweeping, unchecked control. Read the fine print.

By Alt National Park Service (as shared on FB)

[thumbdrivethoughts]

The Long Game of the Republican Party and their Donors

I’m inclined to say Republicans in power have a deliberate plan to rollback as much social and economic progress as possible to remain relevant as a political party. Elon Musk is just one Right-Wing ideologue in on the game. Republicans know that if many of the problems and issues Democrats are attempting to fix get fixed, the Republican party platform will become irrelevant. The Republican's knew for awhile their party was in danger of dying and all this is their attempt to keep it relevant and alive.

So the plan is to roll back as much progress as possible so Democrats and Republicans have to keep refighting the same political battles of the last hundred+ years.

I studied political science (although I did not graduate) and figured this out way back around the early 2000’s when some of the political stances the Republican party were taking even back then didn't make sense and seemed senselessly hurtful and damaging to people.

Another reason for the rollback of progress is because they know, with the economic rise of the chinese populace, corporate industry might need to secure a cheap source of labour in the future until automation kicks in fully. If you impoverish the United States by rolling back as much economic progress of working stiffs as possible, capitalist industry secures a handy source of cheap labour for itself for future exploitation. That's why they moved industry to China in the first place. It was a handy source of cheap labour in a country with little regulations.

It’s a game capitalist industry is playing. They move around the board, making promises of prosperity in some existing poor places while impoverishing other places that once had higher standards of living.

They are playing the long game over decades and hence why most people don't notice it.

Case in point: Remember in the 80’s and early 90’s when Republican’s were all gung ho for moving industry to China? They said it would reduce prices for goods and it would bring Capitalism to China and that it would even bring down the communist party. If anyone has a memory like me you’ll remember that's exactly what Republicans were saying when they defended American industry moving to China. (You might, like me, even remember Bernie Sanders speaking out against American industry moving to China around the same time). Besides Republicans said, because of unions and government policies, the American worker was getting too much in salaries and other retirement benefits for industry to remain sustainable in the U.S. And so Republicans got their way and a lot of American industry moved overseas to China.

And prices of goods did come down but not the CCP (Chinese Communist Party).

And today what are Republicans saying and doing?

They're saying China is screwing us, they are a Communist adversary and we need to move industry back to the good ol’ USA! And as Republicans are saying all this, they are gutting protections for American workers, rolling back economic protections and progress for the American people. Why? You know why. Because they see the standard of living in China is increasing due to their industrialization and they know the Chinese worker is going to demand a higher salary to afford their increased standard of living. And also because environmental standards are kicking in in China due to all that pollution from industry and thus it will be more expensive for industry to stay in China. The same reasons industry left the U.S. in the first place.

That's why these companies - in partnership with Republicans— are preparing the U.S. as a future source of cheap labour by reducing its standard of living and by rolling back the economic, social and environmental progress of the last hundred years. These industries want cheap labour and to find cheap labour in a world running out of such places you have to impoverish people, make them desperate, cut off safety nets so they'll work for you and eliminate government regulations.

They want to bring the U.S. worker down to the level of the pre industrialized Chinese worker.

[walks-the-ages]

PSA, for those only seeing the memes on Tumblr: the Trump administration wanting to disband the TSA is not a "good thing" because he literally only wants to disband it so that *private companies* can take over the role.

Disbanding the TSA is not "Trump being Based" its Trump getting rid of as many "inconveniences" to his administration's plans of mass deportations and personal profiteering as he can, and that includes wanting to get rid of the TSA because it has ~ too many DEI hires ~ aka the new dog whistle for "these organizations hired too many people who weren't straight white cis men" -- to make it easier for him to deport anyone he and his party don't like, and so private companies can roll in and replace the federal programs to earn him and his millionaire + billionaire buddies even more money.

[ashleymilesphil]

LGBTQ+ Refugees in East Africa Deserve Safety and Resettlement🏳️‍🌈🇺🇸

Donald Trump’s speech on January 20, 2025, reminded many of his 2017 inauguration, a moment that left LGBTQ+ people, especially refugees like us, feeling excluded and abandoned. For those of us in East African camps, who once had hope for resettlement in the U.S., it was a painful reminder of policies during his presidency that undermined our rights and dignity.

As LGBTQ+ refugees, we face constant threats violence, stigma, and the daily struggle to survive in camps with little protection or support. Under Trump’s leadership, restrictive immigration policies shattered dreams of safety and resettlement for many. His lack of inclusion and the rollback of protections for LGBTQ+ individuals deepened our vulnerability.

But we refuse to give up hope. We call on the global community, allies, LGBTQ writers on tumblr and advocacy groups to stand in solidarity with us. Our lives matter, and we need your support to push for justice and protections. The fight for equality, dignity, and safe resettlement is far from over.

Let us come together to demand change. Speak out for us the marginalized, the silenced, and the forgotten. Together, we can create a world where no LGBTQ+ person is left behind, no matter where they are.

Your solidarity can save lives. Stand with us. Advocate for us. Together, we can overcome.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from The Revelator:

The water flowing from taps in Wilmington, North Carolina, looked clean, tasted normal, and gave no indication that it carried an invisible threat. For decades the Cape Fear River had provided drinking water to hundreds of thousands of residents in the region. But in 2017 tests revealed what many had feared: high levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), chemicals linked to cancer, immune dysfunction, and reproductive issues, coursing through their water supply.

The contamination had been traced to Chemours, a spinoff of DuPont, which had been releasing PFAS chemicals from its Fayetteville Works plant for years.

The discovery sent shockwaves through the community, triggering lawsuits, emergency water-treatment plans, and a reckoning over how corporations and government regulators had failed to protect public health. But even as residents fought to hold polluters accountable, the company responsible for much of the contamination was tightening its grip on the agencies meant to regulate it.

A former DuPont and American Chemistry Council lobbyist, Nancy Beck, now holds a key position at the Environmental Protection Agency, shaping chemical safety policies that will determine how — or if — PFAS pollution is addressed. In the first days of the second Trump administration, the agency withdrew a proposed rule that would have imposed limits on PFAS discharges, a move that watchdog groups say amounts to giving polluters free rein to continue contaminating water supplies.

The crisis in Cape Fear and Bentham reveals the creeping, silent danger of PFAS, which has infiltrated groundwater, rivers, and drinking-water supplies across the world.

And yet, as the Trump administration accelerates its environmental rollbacks, the ability to regulate and mitigate this growing threat in the United States is being systematically dismantled.

“North Carolina is one area that I’m most familiar with where there’s an entire river system that serves hundreds of thousands of people [and] is very badly contaminated with PFAS,” Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told The Revelator. “A lot of people are drinking that water every day.”