Winooski Activists Fight Forever Chemicals with Awareness

A colorful poster advocating for a ban on PFAS in pesticides, by Winooski resident Frankie Nanni.

As the fall colors give way to a winter wonderland, Winooski resident Marguerite Adelman will try to avoid bundling herself in water-resistant coats, mittens, boots and ski gear. The gear will keep her warm and dry, but she knows such protection comes at a cost.

The coatings on those products carry toxic time bombs in the form of microscopic, man-made chemicals known as PFAS, which stands for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances. This group of around 14,000 chemicals is used to make everyday products resistant to stains, water and grease.

Adelman is the coordinator of the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition, a statewide environmental advocacy group under the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the Earth Democracy Committee, which have U.S. headquarters in New York. The Vermont coalition, with more than 50 volunteers, has worked for the past four years to raise awareness about the dangerous chemicals.

PFAS has garnered public attention and concern in Vermont since 2016, when it was discovered in contaminated well water in the Bennington area, where a former Chemfab plant churned out coated fabrics and other materials. Just a month ago, a new group of wells in Bennington was tested, revealing similarly high levels of the chemicals.

Adelman and fellow PFAS activists believe that preventing further damage from the chemicals requires public education. They want to help Vermonters make decisions about the products they buy and put pressure on lawmakers to impose regulations. Coalition members have written letters to editors of local news outlets, conducted legislative surveys, held monthly meetings, put on fact sheets and presented at public events.

Marguerite Adelman and members of the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition collecting water samples on the banks of the Winooski River

“We need to be demanding to know more about the products that we’re buying because so many of them are starting to kill us,” Adelman said.

In June, the coalition reached out to Vermont artist Facebook groups and posted “calling all artists” listings in Seven Days newspaper to involve artists in the PFAS project. By August, the group had hired four Vermont and Canadian artists to create posters that pique public curiosity about PFAS. Last month, they mounted the posters at grocery stores, farm markets, restaurants, universities, libraries, city halls and other spots across the state. The public can also request the posters for free.

Frankie Nanni, a Winooski resident and lifelong artist, designed a colorful poster that advocated for a ban on PFAS in pesticides, with images of a bat, butterfly and bee to show the potential harm to pollinators.

“Education is the most important thing because it seems like most people don’t know about it,” Frankie said of PFAS. She hopes that her posters will contribute to awareness.

With some “inspiration and guidance from Marguerite,” Frankie said, she used magic markers and a bit of pencil and pen to take a whimsical look at a serious concept.

Adelman has experience working for educational organizations, health departments and in grant writing. She was introduced to PFAS by the Patagonia Foundation, which hired her to write a PFAS-related national grant proposal for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Doing research on PFAS at military bases in Burlington and South Burlington piqued Adelman’s interest in the toxins, leading to a focus on PFAS grant writing in Vermont and the development of the Vermont coalition.

Though Adelman has worked on a plethora of projects, “this one I just haven’t been able to give up,” she said. “I think of my grandchildren.” She worries that already scarce uncontaminated water sources will nearly vanish by the time they grow up, she said.

PFAS are silent intruders, almost indestructible, earning them the nickname “forever chemicals.” Appala Raju Badireddy, environmental engineering professor and researcher at the University of Vermont, attributed their durability to carbon-fluorine bonds formed between the chemicals’ atoms. “It is one of the strongest bonds that man has created,” Badireddy said.

The chemicals won’t go away for a long, long time – if ever.

Scientists have linked certain levels of PFAS to some cancers, a decline in fertility, developmental delays and weaker immune systems in humans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, citing recent studies. A PFAS-Tox database compiled by academic experts all over the country links to hundreds of studies on these health effects.

Badireddy and other researchers conducted a state-wide soil study in 2022, finding that concentrations of PFAS appeared in almost every sample that they took.

Accumulation of the chemical in human bodies can allow higher amounts to enter the bloodstream and bind to proteins, causing “all sorts of problems,” Badireddy said.

At Salmon Hole, a popular fishing spot on the Winooski River, the Vermont PFAS group detected 148.5 parts per trillion of PFAS in a 2021 study. “If you were to eat fish from the Winooski River, you’re not safe,” said Adelman. Though public water is sanitized, wastewater treatment plants release PFAS into water streams, contaminating fish.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2022 health advisory recommends that levels of two PFAS chemicals, perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, should be no more than 0.004 parts per trillion – about one drop in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools.

In May of 2021, state lawmakers passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Ginny Lyons that prohibits use of PFAS-contaminated firefighting foam in training and manufacturers’ sale of the foam in Vermont. The law also prohibits the sale of food packaging, ski wax, and stain resistant treatment for rugs or carpets that have intentionally been manufactured with PFAS.

Lyons and the PFAS Coalition introduced another bill, S.25, that would ban PFAS in products such as cosmetics, menstrual supplies, and winter clothing. It has passed in the Senate and will be reviewed in the House during the 2024 legislative session.

Adelman herself makes many personal decisions that align with her environmental concerns, telling Winooski News that she gets most of her clothes from thrift stores, doesn’t own a cell phone and has a friend rebuild her computer so she doesn’t have to buy a new one. Excessive consumption of products only exacerbates the PFAS problem when so many goods contain the chemicals. “We need to make a switch mentally,” Adelman said.

“Part of my philosophy as I’ve gotten older is do what you can,” she added. “You’ve got to keep fighting and doing your little bit in your part of the world to make things better. That’s all you can do. And at least for me, it gives me hope.”

For more information about the Vermont PFAS/Military Poisons Coalition, visit

www.militarypoisons.org/