NH Science and Public Health in the news!

They all knew…

said Mindi Messmer, co-founder of NH Science and Public Health who sent a series of letters to the NH Attorney General’s office detailing facts uncovered in connection with litigation agains Saint Gobain Performance Plastics in New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire courts.

For example, an engineer hired by Saint Gobain Performance Plastics testified under oath in February 2022, that the company withheld historical use of pure-PFOA products in Merrimack, NH. The engineer was hired by Saint Gobain to model the company’s air pollution. According to expert testimony, this likely caused the engineers to underestimate of the spread of Saint Gobain’s pollution in southern NH.

Also, explosive internal emails were uncovered where company health and safety personnel discussed how they “ought to downplay the potential health risks” of PFOA relative to other PFAS, and argue there are “no proven” health risks. Read the full story in the Guardian by clicking here.

Boston Globe: “Thousands of people in New Hampshire may still be drinking polluted water, years after the largest contamination in state history…”

Saint Gobain dodges responsibility.

NH Science and Public Health scientist expresses concerns. Read more here.

Globe article quoted NH Science and Public Health Study:

“NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN POLLUTED WITH PFAS HAS ELEVATED CANCER RATES”

In 2020, Messmer and several health researchers decided to embark on a study that would compare the town’s cancer rates to those of the nation, as well as to those of comparable towns in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine that do not have notable PFAS contamination. The study also compares Merrimack’s cancer rates with those of Bennington, Vermont — another town where considerable levels of PFAS have been measured in drinking water.

In addition to identifying relatively high local rates of prostate and thyroid cancers, which researchers have previously linked to PFAS, their study also found elevated levels of bladder cancer, colon cancer, esophageal cancer, and mesothelioma, which are not known to be caused by the chemicals. Messmer said she did not know why those cancer rates were higher but added that the elevated bladder cancer numbers may reflect local arsenic contamination, which is naturally occurring in the area.

“I suspect that there’s a confluence of mixtures of chemicals and naturally occurring contaminants that are causing these high rates of cancers,” said Messmer, adding that the findings show the need for more research.

Birnbaum agrees. Although the new study shows clear differences in the cancer rates in certain towns, “All you know is what their exposure in the water is. You don’t have any blood levels from the people,” said Birnbaum. “But it could very well be that this would be the kind of point where people will say, OK, there’s enough data that we should go in and do another study.” Read story here.

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