COTTAGE GROVE, Minn. — Minnesota has the strongest PFAS prevention laws in the country. The pollution control agency says the state's unique history with "forever chemicals" dates all the way back to at least 1947, when 3M began PFAS operations in Cottage Grove.
Last year, Minnesota lawmakers passed new protections after a young woman testified about contamination in her community just before she died. Her sister is now carrying on the fight to protect other families. Nora Strande's family lives life with one member missing.
"My sister Amara Strande was diagnosed with liver cancer at 15," explained Nora Strande. Amara Strande's family thinks drinking water contaminated by forever chemicals contributed to that cancer. The rare liver cancer ravaged her body, and didn't didn't respond to chemo or radiation.
In all, Amara Strande had over 20 surgeries. Derek Lowen went to the same high school as Amara Strande: Tartan High School in Oakdale. "It was a brain tumor about the size of a baseball," Lowen said.
"My tumor could have killed me." Lowen, who was diagnosed his freshman year of high school, was in a different graduating class than Amara Strande, but they were in the same social group. "I almost immediately realized oh, theres a bunch of people sick around me," Lowen said.
"They called them the cancer kids," said Nora Strande. "It was a clique. It was their own group.
" A 2018 Minnesota Department of Health report shows slightly higher levels of childhood cancer in Oakdale wh.