For years, Sébastien Sauvé, a professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Montreal, would go to public places to gather drinking water samples, and test them at his lab for harmful PFAS chemicals. He uncovered widespread contamination that otherwise might never have been revealed.

Any level of benzene exposure can cause adverse health effects — and in 2023, Health Canada examined the problem of gas stations and concluded gas station benzene emissions can be harmful to people living up to 300 metres away.