Such are the unpleasant contours of a public health emergency that is playing out in Hoosick Falls, a quiet river-bend village near the New York-Vermont border that has been upended by disclosures that the public water supply was tainted with high levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, a toxic chemical linked in some studies to an increased risk for cancer, thyroid disease and serious complications during pregnancy.
Again, I lived there and worked not only at a nearby school, but also at two parishes in the area. I still know people who live there and are nervous about the health of their children and grandchildren. The gross indifference of our "post-religious" society is de-moralizing, to say the least.