TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As she sat on her couch, Linda Shosie brought out pictures of her daughter Tiana, tears in her eyes as she described her.
“Oh my God. Tiana was such a beautiful-hearted person. You would have loved her,” Shosie said. “I can’t look at this picture for too long because it just makes me want to cry again. It’s like ahhh.”
Tiana died in 2007 after being diagnosed with lupus and kidney failure in 2003. Shosie, who lived on the south side of Tucson at the time, thinks Tiana died from PFAS, harmful chemicals also known as “forever chemicals” that can cause sicknesses.
She also believes her five year old niece Mia, who died from a rare form of childhood brain cancer in 2017, passed away because of PFAS.
The EPA says PFAS can slow down children’s development, and can cause your chances of getting some cancers and your cholesterol levels to go up.
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“That’s what led me to become a leader for my community and protect the people in my community, just to save lives,” she said.
Tiana’s death is what led her to go door to door on the South Side to talk to neighbors, believing that there was no coincidence that many residents in her neighborhood also had the same health problems.
Officials did find the harmful chemical TCE in water on the South Side. That’s why Shosie has been researching PFAS for years.
All around her house you can see posters, books, and cabinets full of documents.
“Legal documents of all the legal actions that have occurred within the last 40 years,” she described.
Her work is what led her to meet with the EPA and Arizona U.S. Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly.
Here in Tucson on Monday, Shosie toured a water system near Golf Links and Swan.
Touring the facility, Dan Stormont also learned about how the water system gets rid of PFAS from groundwater.
He’s also passionate about clean water, having lived on the Davis Monthan Air Force Base years ago with his family.
While PFAS are not found in Tucson Water anymore, PFAS can still be found northwest of the Air Force Base in the groundwater.
“We were drinking the tap water there and it was contaminated,” he described.
Stormont thinks that why his daughter has to use a pacemaker and his other daughter has lupus, just like Shosie’s daughter did.
“There’s a lot of things that are in our water and in our food chains that are not being addressed and are not being treated by this plant,” he sad.
For a long time, Shosie did not trust Tucson Water and the other agencies that provide the water because they didn’t regulate the PFAS, but both she and Stormont now have more trust in Tucson Water because of the work they’re putting in to fight the harmful chemicals.
While it’s a step in the right direction, Shosie and Stormont’s fight isn’t over.
“We need to do it now and we need more people in our local community to get involved,” Shosie said.
