When Kathleen Dorothy Blackburn was a child growing up in an evangelical family in Lubbock, Texas, her father, a former air force pilot, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 38. Her family sought help from preachers, holy men and faith healers but unbeknownst to them, her father had been exposed to high levels of PFAS — as of this month, limited in drinking water by the FDA — on the military sites where he had worked. @TexasObserver has published this extract from Blackburn's memoir, "Loose of Earth," in which she talks about these forever chemicals, how they may have been linked to her father's illness, and a story her grandmother once shared.
