Inescapable: Facing Up to Forever Chemicals (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2026) by F. Marina Schauffler reminds us that rural communities, often overlooked, can lead the way in confronting the defining environmental challenges of our time.

People across the country have been poisoned by PFAS, also called “forever chemicals,” for decades. But one state has responded like no other. Farmers and communities in Maine—one of the most rural states in the country—have demonstrated unparalleled leadership in the forever chemical crisis.

The first per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were made in a DuPont lab in the 1930s. By 1950s, DuPont and 3M were manufacturing thousands of these chemical compounds for military and industrial uses. Even when the companies knew PFAS were extremely harmful to human health at very low concentrations, they hid this information from the public and ramped up production, which remains unabated. Before long, even the rain had measurable PFAS in it.