Residents of Jersey have been recommended bloodletting to reduce high concentrations of “forever chemicals” in their blood after tests showed some islanders have levels that can lead to health problems.

Private drinking water supplies in Jersey were polluted by the use of firefighting foams containing PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) at the island’s airport, which were manufactured by the US multinational 3M.

PFAS, a family of more than 10,000 chemicals, can build up in the body and are linked to conditions such as kidney and bladder cancer, thyroid disease and immune deficiency.

Bloodletting draws blood from a vein in measured amounts. It is safe and the body replenishes the blood naturally, but it must be repeated until clean.

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    10 hours ago

    The therapy costs about £100,000 upfront and then as much as £200,000 a year.

    Is that per patient? Sounds awfully expensive for extracting a bit of blood.

    • john89@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      How could they possibly have afforded to do it hundreds of years ago???

      Just kidding, I know a lot of things are unnecessarily expensive just to make rich people and grifters more money.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      It’s also waste disposal of the blood, probably needs something special as normal Pfas destruction probably is not setup to include biohazard materials…

      Still that pricetag would be insane if per person.

    • SirSamuel@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Is this dialysis? Or a high percentage transfusion?

      The only way this makes sense medically to me is if they are filtering the pfas out of the blood or doing blood replacement.