Kare11
PFAS ban to go into effect in three months
In less than 100 days, PFAS won’t be allowed in certain products in Minnesota. The ban begins in January 2025.
Minnesota is joining the forefront in banning products that contain PFAS (a class of compounds better known as “forever chemicals” because of their persistence in the environment and humans). The ban goes into effect in three months starting Jan. 1, 2025.
“The 2025 made without PFAS requirements are an essential step to protect Minnesotans and our communities,” Minnesota Pollution Control Agency spokesperson Katrina Kessler said.
Kessler was joined by the Minnesota Department of Health deputy commissioner, Wendy Underwood, on Monday to discuss the PFAS ban that targets many consumer products like cosmetics, cookware, dental floss, and clothing.
“PFAS are not only in air soil water and wildlife. They can now be measured in most people around the world,” Underwood said.
The legislation that created the ban is called “Amara’s Law,” in honor of Amara Strande of Maplewood, who died April 14 at the age of 20 after a long battle with a rare form of liver cancer. Amara spent the last months of her life making trips to the Capitol to testify in support of a PFAS ban, because she was convinced her disease was due to cell mutations triggered by PFAS in drinking water.
Many companies have taken proactive steps to clear their products on PFAS, like Minnesota based Sigma Beauty, Faribault Mill, and Nordic Ware.
“To make sure our products are PFAS free, we watch manufacturing very carefully,” Sigma Beauty spokesperson, Katie Paulson said.
The health impacts of PFAS exposure are still being studied around the world. According to a Minnesota Department of Health summary, prolonged “forever chemical” exposure has been linked to liver and thyroid ailments, immune response suppression and development issues in children.
Maplewood-based 3M, which invented the ubiquitous nonstick chemical, has maintained that the levels in drinking water aren’t sufficient to trigger adverse health effects. The company and the State of Minnesota reached an $850 million out-of-court settlement after the state sued, seeking the cost of cleanup of ground water contaminated by PFAS chemicals that spread from 3M dump sites.
A study by University of Southern California researchers found that people with higher levels of PFAS in their bodies were more likely than others to develop liver cancer, but cautioned that larger studies are needed to gain a full understanding of the relationship between the chemicals and these ailments.
The Environmental Protection Agency has adopted tougher standards for what’s considered an acceptable maximum level of PFAS in municipal water, something that could come at a significant cost for water treatment plants that aren’t equipped to filter it to that extent.
The EPA’s state counterpart, the Minnesota Dept. of Pollution Control, has established an aggressive multi-pronged plan for tackling PFAS issues. It includes more monitoring of ground water, assisting municipalities with PFAS removal, and new efforts to correlate contamination with adverse health impacts.
“To hear year after year young people come to the Capitol and beg adult lawmakers to take action on this PFAS issue and us do nothing is heartbreaking,” Rep. Sydney Jordan, a Minneapolis Democrat remarked.
Those Minnesota clowns are performing at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
SHAKOPEE, Minn. — Lloyd Brant and Rosie Cole have performed as clowns at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival for 40 years.
The two make up the duo Theatre of Fools, and their signature act involves magic, comedy and plenty of clucks. They not only love what they do, they love one another.
“We met at mime school,” said Lloyd.
“I was going to make a joke, but he told the truth,” said Rosie.
Seriously, these two aren’t clowning around. They really met at mime school and started performing together, fell in love, got married, and raised a family with one another.
They admit it can be difficult to describe exactly what they do. They’re based out of Minneapolis and take their unique brand of ‘absurd theatrics’ to festivals all over the nation, oftentimes with kids in tow when they were younger.
“We were the cool parents,” Lloyd said. “Until they went to high school,”
Their son, Gabriel Cole-Brant, didn’t exactly know what to tell people when they asked what his parents did. Even when he had been around the festivals all his life.
“I was born out here,” said Gabriel. “When I was a kid, it just seemed normal.”
He ended up getting a degree in economics and going into politics.
“I was saying that I ran away from the circus to go into politics,” he smiled.
But as his unicycle would tell you, everything comes full circle. Gabriel, now 29, is going into his second year performing at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Last year, he won best new act.
“It really is a wonderful thing, totally a blessing,” he said.
Gabriel, a.k.a., Gabs the Fool, performs his solo show at the Cirque Du Celeste stage, while his parents perform The Wacky Chickens, who perform on the Witchwood stage. Then, Gabriel and Lloyd end the day with a Father & Son Act.
“I’m completely fulfilled,” said Lloyd. “It’s such a pleasure to be working with him side by side on stage.”
The clowns will be performing one more weekend during the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.
A national, $3.4-million grant is making the study possible.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — HealthPartners is ready for the 2024-2025 RSV season; its medical personnel began administering maternal RSV vaccines this month as recommended by the CDC.
But the hospital system says many pregnant patients have questions about the shot and are avoiding it all together.
Dr. Kristi Palmsten is senior research investigator with HealthPartners Institute and co-director of its Pregnancy and Child Health Research Center.
While the FDA in August last year approved the RSV vaccine for those between 32 and 36 weeks pregnant, Palmsten says an internal survey revealed many pregnant patients were hesitant to get the one-dose shot. She says some patients indicated they needed more information directly from their health care provider to make a decision.
“People tend to have questions when there’s a newer product on the market,” Palmsten said. “It just has less safety data available, although the evidence that are available are reassuring in terms of safety and effectiveness.”
The original clinical trial, for example, did not include any lactation-related data or long-term infant and child health effects, she says. Now though, HealthPartners has new funding to gather that information and more.
“The award is from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and it’s for $3.4 million to study the prenatal RSV vaccine in relation to birth outcomes, lactation-related outcomes and child health outcomes up to age three,” Palmsten explained.
Palmsten said she could not comment whether the 2024-2025 vaccine is the same as what the FDA approved last year, but says the new research should help answer other patient questions.
In the 5-year study, researchers will collect data from electronic health records at HealthPartners and a few other healthcare systems nationwide.
“Data that’s routinely collected at infant, well-child visits and postpartum visits,” Palmsten said. “The evidence will help patients make up their mind about whether or not they want to receive it.”
The grant comes as RSV remains the leading cause of infant hospitalizations in the U.S.
So far, researchers say the RSV vaccine creates antibodies that are passed from pregnant person to fetus, protecting it against severe infection. In many cases, the protection can last up to six months after the baby is born.
“Vaccination during pregnancy is shown to have 69% efficacy against severe RSV in the infant up to six months,” according to a HealthPartners press release.
The Get Out MORE investments are helping ensure Minnesotans of all abilities are able to enjoy the outdoor activities the state has to offer.
ROSEMOUNT, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is working to make the outdoors more accessible, including improvements to hunting and fishing access.
“We make other states jealous would be putting it lightly. We hear a lot of feedback from our peers, our counterparts in other states, that wish they had the initiatives that we have here in Minnesota. We are extremely fortunate,” said Jamie Gangaware, Minnesota DNR wildlife operations manager and wildlife section.
The 2023 legislature approved a one-time $150 million for Get Out MORE (Modernize Outdoor Recreation Experiences) investments. About $5 million is committed to enhancing public access to wildlife management areas (WMA).
On Tuesday afternoon, Minnesota DNR staff and representatives from the organization Capable Partners gathered at Vermillion Highlands WMA in Rosemount.
The WMA has three different types of blinds that hunters with disabilities are able to use, including a hydraulic lift blind. It allows hunters to get a bird’s eye view.
The DNR is looking to add four more of these elevated blinds that can be moved all across the state to different WMAs.
“Try it because if you really love hunting, this will be your best opportunity to do such a thing,” said Barry Hite from Emily, Minn.
Hite has been hunting with Capable Partners for about 20 years.
The organization focuses on making the outdoors accessible.
“What a game-changer that has been. Without Capable Partners to help me, there’s no way I could hunt. Because that capable partner is my ears, my eyes, and they track,” said Terrie Schrank, president of Capable Partners.
Vermillion Highlands has partnered with the organization since 2011.
Tim Pharis, area wildlife supervisor for Dakota, Scott, Carver and a portion of Hennepin, recalled a blind hunter who came to the Vermillion Highlands with help from an assistant.
“To watch him come out of the blind and approach the deer… just watching him kind of feeling the antlers and touching parts of the deer’s body was a super emotional thing for me. It’s just a big take home message that we need to be providing more of these opportunities to the public,” Pharis said.
Other improvements will include seven fully accessible parking lots at WMAs and more than 100 projects to retrofit the DNR’s current hunting blinds and wildlife observation platforms to make them ADA compliant.
$5 million is being invested towards shore fishing access and improvements.
Jim Levitt, shore fishing coordinator for the section of fisheries with the MN DNR, said there are more than 300 potential sites across the state that could benefit from shore fishing improvements.
“If you’re a wheelchair user, it really limits you where you can go. And then when you really look at it and see how many of those are actually in the metro, if you’re outside the metro you’re really limited to the places that you can go fishing. So this program and the Get Out MORE funding has really allowed us to expand those opportunities all over the state,” Levitt said.
Levitt has a goal of completing 100 projects with the $5 million dollars they received.
In celebration of everything the state has to offer, Governor Tim Walz is proclaiming Saturday, Sept. 28 as Hunting and Fishing Day in Minnesota.
David Trauba, interim MN DNR wildlife section manager, read the proclamation at Tuesday’s press conference and presented the proclamation to Capable Partners.
