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WATER CONTAMINATION Shea-Porter backs $7M bid for PFC health study

Portsmouth Herald - 7/19/2017

PORTSMOUTH - U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H. signed a bipartisan letter on Tuesday urging the House Appropriations Committee to approve $7 million to launch a national health study on people exposed to PFCs.

"Our servicemen and women, veterans and other constituents who have been exposed to perfluorinated chemicals deserve answers on both the short- and long-term health impacts of these contaminants," Shea-Porter and the other representatives wrote in the letter to U.S. Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "Now that we have established that groundwater contamination exists and that the current body of evidence indicates a clear danger of long-term health risks, we can begin to remedy past mistakes by launching this much-needed study with this $7 million investment in our troops, our veterans, their families and affected civilians."

The city of Portsmouth closed its Haven well at Pease International Tradeport in May 2014 after the Air Force found levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS, at levels 12.5 times higher than what was then the Environmental Protection Agency's provisional health advisory. The EPA has since dramatically lowered its permanent health advisory for both PFOS and perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, which it classifies as "contaminants of emerging concern" due to their suspected health effects.

The Agency For Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has stated some studies have determined PFC exposure can increase a person's likelihood to get cancer, harm the development of a fetus, cause problems with a child's development, increase cholesterol levels and weaken the immune system.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in late June included an amendment in the Defense Authorization Act to pay for a nationwide study on people exposed to PFCs, which will be conducted by ATSDR.

Federal and state regulators believe the PFCs that contaminated the Haven well at the former Air Force base came from firefighting foam used there.