\n<\/p>\n
I read your article (\u2018Forever chemicals\u2019 linked to gut inflammation in children after early exposure, 24 July) on prenatal and early-life exposure to Pfas leading to higher levels of intestinal inflammation in children \u2013 and by extension colorectal cancer \u2013 with interest.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a mum of two. Since my first pregnancy, I have grappled with the endless advice and contradictions on health. Should I use glass bottles of non-organic milk, or plastic bottles of organic milk. Organic broccoli wrapped in plastic, or plastic-free non-organic broccoli.<\/p>\n
As I read the article, I also processed the solution: \u201cMothers can take some steps to protect themselves, including using water filtration systems that remove Pfas, buying organic, avoiding waterproof clothing, and avoiding\u00a0stain guards.\u201d<\/p>\n
My immediate reaction was of despair and rage. How can these huge, systemic issues be just another thing for us to solve? How many working families can afford to eat only organic food? How many of us can afford to fit water filter systems? How many of us can avoid getting wet during school pick ups?<\/p>\n
It is outrageous that these issues are now so commonplace and uncontested that the burden of solving them gets shunted on to the\u00a0shoulders of parents.<\/p>\n
It is not our responsibility. It is the government\u2019s responsibility to legislate. It is big agriculture\u2019s responsibility not to cover our food in chemicals. It is the water companies\u2019 responsibility to ensure we have clean water. As if these things even need to be said.<\/p>\n
I cannot read another article about how I am irreparably damaging my child\u2019s long-term health, with the solution just to \u201cbuy x or y\u201d. The solution is bigger and harder than this. And it is not our responsibility to shoulder it. Have an opinion on anything you\u2019ve read in the Guardian today? Please <\/em><\/strong>email<\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our <\/em><\/strong>letters<\/em><\/strong> section.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I read your article (\u2018Forever chemicals\u2019 linked to gut inflammation in children after early exposure, 24 July) on prenatal and early-life exposure to Pfas leading to higher levels of intestinal inflammation in children \u2013 and by extension colorectal cancer \u2013 with interest. I\u2019m a mum of two. Since my first pregnancy, I have grappled with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51542,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[16610,12611,2763,342,1600,630,2700],"class_list":{"0":"post-51541","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-avoiding","9":"tag-burden","10":"tag-chemicals","11":"tag-cost","12":"tag-fall","13":"tag-parents","14":"tag-pfas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Kendal Archer<\/strong>
Exeter<\/em><\/p>\n