READING – From May 27 to June 5, journalists Mariah Blake and Sharon Udasin will be crossing the state, holding seven events to publicize two newly released books, Blake’s They Poisoned the World: Life in the Age of Forever Chemicals (Penguin Random House) and Udasin and Rachel Frazin’s Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America.

Both books document how a handful of chemical companies introduced per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, first to the American market, and then to the world, despite knowing that small amounts of the chemicals caused illness and death.

Mariah Blake’s “They Poisoned the World: Life in the Age of Forever Chemicals” focuses on Hoosick Falls, New York, and residents who fought back against Saint Gobain Performance Plastics, a company that also has facilities in Massachusetts.

Sharon Udasin and Rachel Frazin’s “Poisoning the Well: How Forever Chemicals Contaminated America” covers the impact of PFAS on four other communities and the role the military played in contaminating communities by requiring the use of PFAS-containing firefighting foam in active firefighting and drills.

Both books tell what What if We Get it Right podcaster Ayana Elizabeth Johnson describes as “a true crime story”, one in which the actors causing harm are corporations, and the victims are; first and foremost, highly exposed workers and residents, and second, every American with PFAS in their blood, ie all of us.

It is also a story of corporate greed and the story of families and communities who have pushed back against a world-wide crime that should never have been allowed to happen.

Author Sharon Udasin will be a having book event in Reading:

Monday, 6/2 – Reading Public Library , Common Room, 64 Middlesex Avenue, at 7pm, Sharon Udasin

The two authors will also be having book events at the following times and locations:

Tuesday, 5/27 – Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge MA,Mairah Blake with science journalist Deborah Blum, free, no registration required

Thursday, 5/29 – Plymouth Public Library at 4pm, registration required at link, Sharon Udasin

Friday, 5/30 – Sturgis Public Library 3090 Main Street, Barnstable at 10:30am, registration required at link, Sharon Udasin

Nantucket Athaneum, 1 India Street, Nantucket at 6:30, Mariah Blake with Ayesha Khan, Co-founder of Nantucket PFAS Action Group

Sunday, 6/1 – Weston Public Library , Community Room, 87 School Street, Weston, at 3pm, registration required at link, Sharon Udasin

Thursday, 6/5 – Chelsea Public Library 569 Broadway, Chelsea at 11am, Sharon Udasin

In Massachusetts, Clean Water Action and the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, a coalition of public health and environmental advocates, are encouraging journalists and the public to attend these events to learn more about the scope of the PFAS contamination crisis and the need for action.

Clean Water and AHT are advocating for An Act to Protect Massachusetts Public Health from PFAS, sponsored by Representative Kate Hogan and Senator Julian Cyr and An Act Protecting Our Soil and Farms from PFAS Contamination, sponsored by Representative Jim Hawkins and Senator Jo Comerford. If passed, these bills would ban most non-essential uses of PFAS and halt the use of PFAS-containing sludge as a fertilizer for Massachusetts farms.