Today, there's no federal or state restriction on the level of PFAS contamination considered a public health threat. What there is, is an advisory. We speak to a former EPA official who helped create it. Plus, what can we learn about our own freshwater seas from researchers studying the African Great Lakes?
Listen to the full show above or find individual segments below.
Former EPA official says agency is moving too slowly on update to PFAS advisory
- Betsy Southerland is a member of the Environmental Protection Network, and former director of the Office of Science and Technology in the EPA’s Office of Water. She joined Stateside to discuss the advisory her team put out in 2016 on what's considered a safe level of PFAS in drinking water, and why there's still confusion over what the cutoff should be.
Detroit architect Albert Kahn helped pave the way for Soviet victory in WWII
- Michael Hodges is a fine arts writer for the Detroit News and author of the book Building the Modern World: Albert Kahn in Detroit. He told Stateside about Kahn’s immigrant roots, growth as an architect in Michigan, and his relationship with Henry Ford.
Kenyan researcher talks similarities, differences between African and North American Great Lakes
- Kevin Obiero is the director of Kenya’s Marine and Fisheries Research Institute. Obiero is in the U.S. to share what he's found in his research on the African Great Lakes with scientists studying the North American Great Lakes.
Study: Your Great Lakes microbrews might come with hint of microplastic
- Mary Kosuth teaches at Dunwoody College of Technology in Minneapolis. She conducted a study that found that beers made using Great Lakes water were likely picking up microplastics during the brewing process.
A Michigan adoptee’s decades-long fight to get birth records from the state
- Rudy Owens is a Detroit native who spoke with Stateside about his personal experience with Michigan’s adoption system, and the legal fight to obtain his own birth records. Owens is the author of the book You Don’t Know How Lucky You are: An Adoptee’s Journey Through the American Adoption Experience.
(Subscribe to the Stateside podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or with this RSS link)
