Residents in Southern NH exposed to high levels of PFOA can begin getting their blood tested, but those blood tests will likely take months to be processed.
State Epidemiologist Ben Chan told residents gathered at Campbell High auditorium in Litchfield that if they qualify for bottled water, then they also qualify for blood tests.
The tests will be drawn locally, but, he says, they have to be sent out of state for processing and will likely take months to get back.
“Few labs will do the testing,” he told residents, “and this situation is occurring all around the country, and so these few labs are getting requests from multiple other sources.”
Officials from the state’s Environmental Services department also updated residents on efforts to extend public water sources to homes with contaminated wells in a number of nearby towns. The state is still in negotiations with the likely polluter, Saint Gobain, on funding for the project. If it proceeds, it would likely be completed in December.
