Newburgh Officials Begin Blood Testing Residents For PFOS
By Peak Johnson
In Newburgh, NY, state officials have recently launched a unique effort to offer blood tests to the city’s 28,000 residents after the chemical PFOS was detected in the drinking water reservoir at levels that were above federal guidelines.
PFOS, or perfluorooctane sulfonate, has been linked to cancer, thyroid problems, and other health issues. NBC New York reported that results of the testing are expected to be released early next year. The results will not tell if people are actually at an increased risk for any health problems, “but will show how their exposure compares to others.”
"The fact that I've been drinking that water for years, and my daughter's been drinking and bathing in it, that's shocking to me," Stuart Sachs, an artist who moved to Newburg from Brooklyn 14 years ago, told NBC. "My daughter is 11. What diseases is she going to have to look forward to? It's scary."
This past summer, in the wake of contamination that forced the closure of the primary drinking water supply for Newburgh, City Manager Michael Ciaravino asked the state’s Department of Health (DOH) to begin testing residents.
According to the Times Herald-Record, in a letter sent to DOH in July, Ciaravino said that there is “adequate justification” for the state to offer testing for residents that were exposed to PFOS, whose levels led to the closure of Washington Lake.
State officials already launched a testing program for residents of two Rensselaer County communities whose water supplies have been tainted by perfluorooctanoic acid, a related chemical also known as PFOA.
“We are all concerned about this,” Ciaravino told the city council during a meeting in early July.
The Times Herald-Record reported that PFOS was first detected in Newburgh’s drinking water in December 2013 after the U.S. EPA ordered municipalities to begin testing for the chemical.
Most people have been exposed to PFOS and PFOA because of the chemicals’ past use in consumer products.
According to NBC, in 2014 PFOS was detected in the 175-acre Lake Washington, the city's drinking water supply, at a level 170 ppt, well below the 400 ppt limit then recommended by the EPA. When the EPA set a new level of 70 ppt for short-term exposure in spring of this year, the city declared an emergency and changed to a new water source.
New York's Department of Environmental Conservation identified nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base as the source of the PFOS. They suspect that the chemical entered into a stream leading to the city reservoir.
Any resident who wanted to make an appoint was able to receive a free blood test. However, NBC reported that getting people tested has proven to be a problem since most residents live in poverty and that “more than 46 percent of households speak a language other than English at home.”
"Newburgh is a very poor city, and special recognition has to be given to the fact that people who are really struggling, really at the edge, are going to need extra help getting out, learning about it," Sachs continued. "On my street, people have vaguely heard there was an issue with the water."