I'm a Michigan nun. Pope Francis says PFAS contamination is a sin against God. | Opinion

While former President Donald Trump ginned up racial fear with his claim that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the U.S., our blood has actually been poisoned — by willfully negligent chemical companies.

All of us have been exposed to a group of toxins known as PFAS, dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally. Even when corporations knew that PFAS were toxic, they were dumped in our water and sold to us in products like Teflon, carpeting and food packaging. These toxic substances are linked to several forms of cancer, as well as impaired fetal development.

I am a religious sister, and I believe we have a moral duty to ourselves and to our children to strengthen the guardrails against reckless pollution.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently enacted the first-ever limits on PFAS in drinking water. This is great news, but the damage will be very hard to reverse. Ninety-eight percent of Americans already have PFAS in their blood, according to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. PFAS accumulate in our bodies and, sadly, one of the only ways we rid ourselves of these toxins is from pregnant mothers to their babies. Studies show virtually all babies are now born with PFAS in their bodies. This reality hits hard in Michigan, a state with dozens of known PFAS contamination sites in addition to the tragedy of the Flint water crisis.

Pope Francis has been very vocal about the moral dimensions of pollution and environmental destruction. He has said that contaminating our air and water is “a sin against ourselves and a sin against God.” This self-destruction is not what God intends for us. We have a moral duty to create a cleaner and safer world.

I commend the current EPA for taking action. It will be a major undertaking to assess and rectify this massive problem. Not only that, but the EPA has taken strong action on several issues of harmful pollution. In February, for example, they strengthened standards on deadly soot pollution from power plants, a move that will save 4,500 lives a year.

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Our consciousness is becoming more elevated about the ways that industry has poisoned us. In many cases, they knew the chemicals caused cancer but they kept discharging them in wastewater or putting them into their products. Throughout history, there have always been entities that seek profits regardless of the harm they cause. As individuals, we can do little to reign in the greedy and the powerful. That is why we need to demand that our government protects us.

I am hopeful that our elevated awareness will continue to lead to action. Perhaps in the future we will even prevent disasters like PFAS being infused into our environment.

It is not just a public health issue, it is a moral issue about the kind of world we want to live in together.

Pope Francis says it best: In “Let Us Dream,” he asserts, “God asks us to dare to create something new. We need to slow down, take stock and design better ways of living together on this earth.”

Sister Ellen Burkhardt, O.P., is an Adrian Dominican sister who lives in Detroit and serves her congregation’s Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation initiatives. Submit a letter to the editor at freep.com/letters, and we may publish it in print and online.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: PFAS contamination goes against God's will, says Michigan nun