Forever chemicals in North Bay and across Canada [Video]

In a packed North Bay, Ont. auditorium this March, residents, environmental and legal aid groups gathered to discuss a problem that’s been decades in the making, and that risks affecting not only those who live in the area, but likely millions more Canadians across the country.

The public information session’s focus was PFAS, a kind of artificial, potentially toxic chemicals that have crept into countless corners of daily life, and of which many persist in the land, water and human body alike for years.

Since as far back as the 1970s, North Bay’s municipal water supply in nearby Trout Lake has harboured PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which Health Canada notes have been associated in some cases with liver and developmental issues, cancer and complications with pregnancy.

In recent weeks, U.S. regulators have finalized new maximum limits on six key kinds of PFAS in drinking water, and in Canada, a …