Wow thanks for the fascinating article. I’m amazed these kinds of failures are tolerated without stronger action. The way the article paints it at least, companies might be getting away with cutting costs on net production and almost causing deaths through inadequate insecticide infusion. In this article the WHO “WHO sent a letter of concern to Germany-based Mainpol GmbH because some of its nets contained too much or too little insecticide.” Is that really strong enough action? Surely you cut the supplier, investigate and maybe sue them if they haven’t met a standard?
Tesla recalls tens of thousands of cars for a minor manufacturing defect that might cause a death or two, while the WHO just writes letters about defects that could be killing thousands?
Although it wasn’t clear, there might also be a “DDT” effect here—where concern about the environmental effects of a chemical means they switch to an inferior one.
”The original coating contained PFAS, dubbed forever chemicals because they’re so slow to break down. While PFAS are still widely used to make shoes and backpacks water resistant and to produce firefighting foams, they’ve been linked to increased cancer risk, decreased fertility and developmental delays in children.Their use has been restricted in many countries and industries have been seeking alternatives.”
Are we willing to do some potential harm in order to do more good? Always a tricky question.
Thanks for extracting that quote about PFAS, this is really the main point for me.
In the contamination remediation industry (which I have some familiarity with via my partner), PFAS seems to be considered to be the boogey-man of contaminants (for enviro and health reasons).
I can imagine an alternative headline that highlights how AMF et al. have been handing out bednets containing PFAS. Doesn’t seem like it would go down well either.
Perhaps we just need to accept that this is an R&D problem that needs to be solved ASAP, and respond accordingly.
According to the article, there are high-performing PFAS alternatives, but they are more expensive. So instead Verstergaard allegedly went with the cheaper, lower-performing option.
Wow thanks for the fascinating article. I’m amazed these kinds of failures are tolerated without stronger action. The way the article paints it at least, companies might be getting away with cutting costs on net production and almost causing deaths through inadequate insecticide infusion. In this article the WHO “WHO sent a letter of concern to Germany-based Mainpol GmbH because some of its nets contained too much or too little insecticide.” Is that really strong enough action? Surely you cut the supplier, investigate and maybe sue them if they haven’t met a standard?
Tesla recalls tens of thousands of cars for a minor manufacturing defect that might cause a death or two, while the WHO just writes letters about defects that could be killing thousands?
Although it wasn’t clear, there might also be a “DDT” effect here—where concern about the environmental effects of a chemical means they switch to an inferior one.
”The original coating contained PFAS, dubbed forever chemicals because they’re so slow to break down. While PFAS are still widely used to make shoes and backpacks water resistant and to produce firefighting foams, they’ve been linked to increased cancer risk, decreased fertility and developmental delays in children.Their use has been restricted in many countries and industries have been seeking alternatives.”
Are we willing to do some potential harm in order to do more good? Always a tricky question.
Thanks for extracting that quote about PFAS, this is really the main point for me.
In the contamination remediation industry (which I have some familiarity with via my partner), PFAS seems to be considered to be the boogey-man of contaminants (for enviro and health reasons).
I can imagine an alternative headline that highlights how AMF et al. have been handing out bednets containing PFAS. Doesn’t seem like it would go down well either.
Perhaps we just need to accept that this is an R&D problem that needs to be solved ASAP, and respond accordingly.
According to the article, there are high-performing PFAS alternatives, but they are more expensive. So instead Verstergaard allegedly went with the cheaper, lower-performing option.