“We can take pictures with our smart phones in the rain because PFAS are used to keep critical components dry.” This is one example a Republican state representative recently cited extolling the virtues of PFAS chemicals in everyday products.

PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals. They are linked to serious health problems, including high cholesterol, kidney and liver disease, cancer, immune and reproductive deficiencies and developmental delays.

Here in New Hampshire, there’s no doubt that Saint Gobain Performance Plastics emitted unsafe levels of toxic PFAS chemicals. The French-owned multinational corporation admitted this to state regulators in 2016.

For years past, and still today, these hazardous chemicals spew from smoke stacks at Saint Gobain’s Merrimack plant, settling into soil and polluting drinking water wells in a growing area that includes more than 4,000 southern New Hampshire homes and businesses. After years of efforts to compel it to control toxic airborne emissions that cause groundwater contamination, New Hampshire has sued the company for delays installing the required treatment system.

This corporation has a track record of contaminating water supplies at its facilities in Hoosick Falls, New York, and Bennington, Vermont. Indeed, news reports show Saint Gobain moved its Bennington operation to Merrimack to avoid Vermont’s stricter pollution laws.

Rather than defending them, we need policy makers to hold polluting corporations accountable for the toxic substances they release.

New Hampshire’s own Sen. Maggie Hassan is pressing the Environmental Protection Agency to address PFAS contamination and cosponsoring legislation requiring enforceable drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals.