State Will Staff 'Public Inquiry Line' On PFOA Investigation

  The state says residents who have questions or concerns about PFOA exposure can call a public inquiry line starting today. 

The Department of Health and Human Services says individuals can call 603-271-9461 anytime between 9 am and 4 pm on weekdays with questions about the investigation.

Staff will return any messages received outside those hours the following business day.

The inquiry line is part of additional state response to the PFOA issue, including expanded water and blood testing and distributing more bottled water to residents near the suspected site of the contamination, the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Merrimack.  

"We want to make sure that we're doing the kind of testing we need to find out what levels there are throughout the state at different sites," Governor Maggie Hassan said on Saturday about the additional steps. "We want to make sure that residents have access to bottled water, if the water they use tests at certain levels. We want to expand blood testing, and we want to expand our investigation generally around these issues."

The expanded testing radius, announced last week, includes Londonderry and Manchester, in addition to Merrimack, Bedford, and Litchfield.