Survey to eye impact of PFOA
Connections suspected to at least six major illnesses
ALBANY, N. Y. » Officials from Bennington College and a former administrator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency urged residents of Hoosick Falls, Petersburgh and North Bennington, Vermont, on Tuesday to complete a new community health questionnaire about their exposure to a cancer- causing chemical found in municipal water supplies in all three areas.
Officials said the questionnaire will help gather local insight into the incidents of six illnesses previous scientific studies have linked to exposure to perflourooctanic acid, a synthetic chemical that is persistent, mobile and toxic. PFOA was once a major ingredient in the manufacture of high- performance plastics like Teflon and was used extensively at
industrial facilities in Hoosick Falls, Petersburgh and North Bennington.
High levels of PFOA were detected in the public water system in Hoosick Falls in 2014, and subsequently in numerous public and private water sources in and around Hoosick Falls, Petersburgh and North Bennington. Water filtration systems have been installed in the affected municipalities, and state officials in both New York and Vermont are moving forward with their respective remediation plans.
Officials at the news conference, however, said many residents still have questions about the potential long- term health impact of PFOA contamination.
“PFOA in drinking water is known to damage health, and no one knows how long the residents of Hoosick Falls, Petersburgh and Bennington have been drinking contaminated water,” said Judith Enck, former Region 2 administrator for the EPA under President Barack Obama. “This project is an effort to document possible health impacts fromthis legacy of pollution and encourage residents and regulators to be vigilant about health monitoring.”
Dr. Howard Freed, a former director of the state Health Department’s Center for Environmental Health, said recent laboratory and epidemiological studies strongly correlated exposure to PFOA with a number of adverse health effects.
“The panel found links to PFOA exposure in kidney cancer, testicular cancer, ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, severe high blood pressure in pregnancy and high cholesterol,” explained Freed, “and it is those six illnesses that we are asking about in this questionnaire.”
The questionnaire is supported by a Bennington College project called Understanding PFOA and was designed by Drs. Zeke Bernstien and David Bond from Bennington College and environmental engineer Robert
Chinery, along with Freed and Enck.
“PFOA has infiltrated our environment and our communities irrespective of the boundaries of responsible parties or state jurisdiction,” said Bond. “By bringing together the impacted residents from New York and Vermont, this questionnaire focuses on the scale of the problem itself. By working with the deep knowledge community members have of their own health, this questionnaire will also help give local insight the prominence it deserves in broader discussions about PFOA.”
The questionnaire will be distributed in the affected communities throughout September, and results will be reported back to the community soon after the Oct. 1 deadline for completing the surveys. The questionnaire can be filled out online at www.bennington.edu/ PFOA or is available in paper form at local libraries.
Residents who have questions about the questionnaire or do not receive a copy can call Bond at 802440- 4324 or email UnderstandingPFOA@bennington.edu.
Shortly after that news conference, officials fromthe state Department of Health issued a news release saying it now has the support of five states in its formal request to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to launch a national health effects study of communities impacted by substances like PFOA, including Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh. The agency has also launched an online survey tool for Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, aswell as those in other areas of the state affected by PFOA contamination to continue to gather information about the potential health impacts of exposure.
More than 1,700 current and former residents of the Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh areas have already completed a community survey, which asks about where and when they lived in the area, their occupations and any health conditions with which they have been diagnosed. The Health Department will use results of the surveys to study the reported prevalence of health conditions in each impacted community and assess the relationship between disease prevalence and exposure levels.
The survey is available at of by calling 518- 402- 7950. More information is also available by email at BEOE@health.ny.gov.