PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are used by industry and are found in consumer products such as nonstick cookware. They can cause cancer, birth defects, liver problems, damage to the immune systems, and other serious health problems. PFAS are of particular concern to rural people who get their water from wells and who live near farmland that has been spread with municipal sewage sludge—what the waste disposal industry calls "beneficial biosolids"—that are laden with PFAS.