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0000017a-15d9-d736-a57f-17ff8f4d0000NHPR’s ongoing coverage of water contamination at the former Pease Air Force Base and in the communities surrounding the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Merrimack. We’ll keep you updated on day to day developments, and ask bigger questions, such as:What do scientists know about the health effects of perfluorochemicals like PFOA, PFOS and PFHxS?How are policy makers in New Hampshire responding to these water contaminants?How are scientists and policymakers communicating potential risks?How are other states responding to similar contaminations?

State Health Officials Unveil Results of Pease PFC Blood Tests

Jason Moon for NHPR

State health officials held a meeting in Portsmouth Thursday night to discuss the results of over 1500 blood tests from people exposed to contaminated water at the former Pease Air Force base.

After perfluorochemicals, or PFCs, were detected in a well that supplied the former Pease Air Force base in 2014, the State Department of Health and Human Services began offering blood tests to people who were potentially exposed.

Last night at the Community Campus in Portsmouth, State Epidemiologist Ben Chan reviewed the aggregate results of those tests. The takeaway:

“PFOS, PFOA, and PFHxS, all three of these were all found in statistically higher levels in the Pease population compared to the general U.S. population.”

But Chan says compared to other exposed communities around the country, the PFC blood levels of the Pease population are much lower.

Still, many who attended expressed frustration that the data from the blood tests isn’t being used to study the health effects of PFCs, which are so far poorly understood.

Jason Moon is a senior reporter and producer on the Document team. He has created longform narrative podcast series on topics ranging from unsolved murders, to presidential elections, to secret lists of police officers.
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