The Washington Post, July 2025
When Lawrence and Penny Higgins of Fairfield, Maine, learned in 2020 that high levels of toxic chemicals called PFAS tainted their home’s well water, they wondered how their health might suffer. They’d been drinking the water for decades, giving it to their pets and farm animals, and using it to irrigate their vegetable garden and fruit trees. “We wanted to find out just what it’s going to do to us,” Penny Higgins said. They contacted a couple of doctors, but “we were met with a brick wall. Nobody knew anything.”
PFAS can affect nearly every organ system and linger in bodies for decades, raising risks of cancer, immune deficiencies and pregnancy complications.
These “forever chemicals” have been widely used since the 1950s in products including cosmetics, cookware, clothing, carpeting, food packaging and firefighting foam. Researchers say they permeate water systems and soils nationwide, with a federal study estimating that almost half of U.S. tap water is contaminated. PFAS can be detected in the blood of nearly all Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Maine was among the first states to begin extensive water and soil testing and to try to limit further public exposure to PFAS through policy action, after discovering that farms and residences — like the Higgins property — had been contaminated by land-spreading of wastewater sludge. Exposure can also be high for people living near military bases, fire training areas, landfills or manufacturing facilities.
