CANBERRA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- More than 40,000 Australians have banded together to sue the government over their exposure to a dangerous chemical and it is thought to be the nation's largest class action.
The group, which involves people across the country, claims that the chemical compound PFAS has endangered their health, contaminated waterways and been responsible for their property values plummeting. They are planning to file the suit by Christmas.
According to the report of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday, PFAS is a collection of synthetic compounds that looks a little like bubble bath.
PFAS is also fire retardant and is said to be effective at extinguishing jet fuel fires. Between the 1970s and 2000s, it is alleged Australia's Department of Defence used a significant amount of PFAS on Defence bases across the country.
Shine Lawyers, the firm representing the group, has enlisted the support of American activist Erin Brockovich to help publicise their cause.
"The science is in on these chemicals. It can cause cancer," Brockovich told the ABC. She named "testicular cancer, kidney cancer, and thyroid cancer" as some of the effects of PFAS - a link confirmed by countries including Germany, Britain and the United States, but denied by Australia.
"Every one of us has a common bond here, about loving the environment and our family - what we leave, the legacy we leave for our children. We're destroying that and it's heartbreaking," she said.
The Department of Defence has stated that there is "limited to no evidence of human disease or other clinically significant harm resulting from PFAS exposure at this time". However the website also recommends exposure to PFAS be minimized.
Joshua Aylward, lead counsel with Shine Lawyers, told the ABC: "PFAS has leached into the environment and left the boundaries of these bases and entered into the communities, and it's in the rivers and the creeks and the fish and the people.
"The amount of time I've spent with people who are crying because they've found out that their water is contaminated, and they've been drinking it for years; they've foeund out that their kids have exceptionally high levels in their bloods and they are really concerned for their family," he said.
