Dear friends,
This month I was deeply moved by the book, They Poisoned the World by Miranda Blake, a deep investigative dive into forever chemicals (e.g. PFOA, PFAS) and the harm they have done to communities across the US. I first heard about it from my colleague, Erin Howe, and I was motivated to read it because I have a personal connection to the story.
Shortly after finishing the book, a local news story about water contamination in southeast Colorado caught my attention. As I dug into the details and processed what was happening in our own backyard, I kept returning to the profound implications for STEM education, our students, and society at large.
I’ve shared my reflections below and in this month’s newsletter. I’d love to hear your thoughts—and I highly recommend adding the book to your reading list!
Warmly,
Kate Henson, PhD
What’s the book about?
Blake begins her investigation of forever chemicals in Hoosick Falls, New York, a small village of about 3,000 near the Vermont border, where Teflon production began at a local factory in the 1950s. The factory was dumping its waste adjacent to the public wells that supplied the village with drinking water. A local resident and physician became alarmed as they noticed how many people in the community were suffering from diseases like cancer. They tested the water and found extremely high levels of forever chemicals which they linked to the high rate of disease. After years of political and legal battles, the area was ultimately designated a federal superfund site by the EPA. Through a settlement with the polluters, the municipal water infrastructure was rebuilt and residents were compensated through a class action lawsuit that included medical monitoring for diseases related to forever chemicals.
While telling the story of what happened in Hoosick Falls, Blake weaves in the history of forever chemicals, from their origin in post war surplus through their use in everyday household items through Teflon and Scotchguard. She explores their manufacturing, the policies that made them possible, and the companies involved in covering up the health risks, including big names like DuPont and 3M. It’s a story of capitalism and greed that we’ve heard before (think the tobacco and opioid industries). Ultimately though, it’s a story of hope framed around what happens when regular folks decide to fight for the health and safety of their families and communities.
How is it connected to other real world events?
The day I finished this book I heard a story on the radio about a $30 million award to La Junta, Colorado for filtering forever chemicals from wastewater. Curious about the source of the contamination, I did some digging.
Unlike Hoosick Falls, La Junta doesn’t have a local factory to blame for the pollution. The city of around 7,000 relies on the Arkansas River watershed and their drinking water includes runoff from sources upstream. Pollution from sources including the Pederson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs are responsible for the contamination. The base has a long history of conducting firefighter training using foam made of forever chemicals (PFAS). When those chemicals infiltrated the ground water, they ended up in the drinking water in La Junta in Otero County, among other places. Once the contamination in La Junta was discovered, the drinking water was filtered to remove the chemicals. Currently, the chemicals removed from the drinking water are added to the waste water discharged into the Arkansas River, raising the levels in the river beyond safe limits and sending them downstream.
The $30 million will be used for infrastructure to move the forever chemicals from the wastewater to evaporating ponds where they will be reduced to a sludge to be disposed of in the landfill.
Why do real world phenomena really matter?
My path from hearing a news story to investigating the upstream causes in La Junta is the exact move we want our students to make. We need to nurture student curiosity by grounding learning in complex, real world phenomena that invite them to ask questions and motivate them to investigate and make sense of what they find.
Students need regular practice applying Science and Engineering Practices (SEPs) to real-world problems. We aren't just training the next generation of engineers, scientists, lawyers, and policymakers to make evidence-based decisions; we are empowering every future citizen.
In Blake's book, the real hero is Emily Marpe, a mom and nursing home employee in Hoosick Falls. Devastated to learn her family's well was contaminated, Emily became an activist overnight. She asked critical questions, analyzed data, evaluated evidence, and ultimately communicated her findings locally and by testifying before Congress.
Why is it so powerful when phenomena are tied to interest and identity?
This story hit home for me. My grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins all lived in Hoosick Falls. My grandfather was the fourth employee hired at the factory central to the story, working there for 34 years. While my grandparents had a private well that was not contaminated, my aunt and uncle relied on municipal water and were part of the class-action settlement.
I thought about my grandfather a lot while I read this book. I wish I could ask him about his experience. He was kind and gentle, and I know he would not have wanted any preventable harm to come to his community. Yet, he must have known the chemicals were dangerous and not being disposed of properly. Problems like forever chemicals are complex because they don’t occur in a vacuum, but rather in diverse, complex communities. The teflon factory was the only real industry in the village of Hoosick Falls, likely the largest employer in a place where the poverty rate is higher than the national average. That is, losing the largest employer would have had great economic consequences to the community. When public health and economic survival are pitted against each other, decision-making becomes painfully complex. Helping students explore these intersecting human, economic, and scientific dimensions is what really matters.
What will the future bring?
Currently, "forever chemicals" live up to their name: current mitigation mostly moves them from places of high harm (drinking water) to places of lower harm (landfills). We spend millions to manage risk, but the molecular hazard remains.
However, hope is on the horizon. Researchers at the Colorado School of Mines are developing technologies to break down PFAS into harmless molecular components.
It is our responsibility and moral obligation as educators to ensure today's students are prepared to join this work—whether in a chemistry lab or as informed community advocates.
Margaret Mead said it best. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
References
Blake, M. (2025). They poisoned the world: Life and death in the age of forever chemicals. Crown.
Booth, M. (2025, July 10). Photos: Deconstructing “forever chemicals” at a Colorado military base. The Colorado Sun. https://coloradosun.com/2025/07/10/colorado-springs-space-force-pfas-forever-chemicals/
Colorado Public Radio. (2026, October 20). La Junta federal funding filter PFAS wastewater. CPR News. https://www.cpr.org/2026/10/20/la-junta-federal-funding-filter-pfas-wastewater/