Source: http://www.myfoxboston.com, March 31, 2015
Thousands of New Hampshire residents may have been exposed to toxic levels of chemicals from contaminated well water.
The water served the Pease International Tradeport and former Air Force base, which is now a Superfund site after the EPA officials said they found levels of perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, in the well that were ten times higher than recommended levels.
Tuesday, state environmental and city officials met with concerned residents and employees about planned blood tests that will measure levels of PFC in those exposed to the well water.
The well was activated in 1993, but the test for PFCs wasn’t conducted until May 2014.
“Shame on our representatives for not realizing there’s an issue and pushing on it,” said Sarah Grant.
Grant worked at the base for 10 years, and since leaving her job said she has experienced multiple symptoms and health effects that have been unable to be diagnosed by doctors.
“Over the years, a lot of different doctors said the same thing. ‘You’ve got something going on, but we don’t know what it is’,” said her husband David Grant.
Many at Tuesday’s meeting expressed anger over what they called inaction by the government and a lack of transparency.
State environmental officials told the crowd that testing would be widespread and that anyone had concerns would be given an opportunity to address them.
Dr. Benjamin Chan, a state epidemiologist, told the crowd that there were no conclusive links between PFCs and health effects, noting PFCs are common in many household goods.
“There is no medically approved way of removing these chemicals from the body,” Dr. Chan said.
Some questioned his answers.
“The doctor said there’s no way to connect the dots between these chemicals and cancer. So I sat there, on my phone, and pulled up article after article about exposure to this specific chemical being linked to cancer,” Grant said.
Officials said applications for blood testing are now being accepted and predicted testing would occur in April and May, but said results would not be available for several weeks.