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Testing for Pease:
Testing for Pease is excited to share that co-founder, Andrea Amico, was given a Citizen Citizen Excellence in Community Involvement Award by the EPA Region 1. This award recognizes Andrea Amico’s work in organizing and educating community and government stakeholders impacted by PFAS water contamination at the former Pease AFB in Portsmouth, NH. An award ceremony was held on
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Wednesday, November 7, 2018, where Andrea was presented the award at the Portsmouth City Hall. The speakers at the ceremony included: US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Alexandra Dunn (EPA Region 1 Administrator), and Robert Scott (NH DES Commissioner), and Jack Blaloc (Mayor - City of Portsmouth), Testing for Pease is proud of their leadership at the local, state, and national level and are very appreciative of this recognition.
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Testing for Pease participated in the NH Medical Society annual event on Friday, November 9, 2018, in New Castle, NH. The NH medical society hosted a presentation on PFAS titled: "Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Substances". Testing for Pease was invited to be a panel member to share the community perspective on the need for more physician engagement and education on PFAS to better serve impacted PFAS communities requesting medical monitoring. We were happy to be a part of this very important opportunity to engage the healthcare community in New Hampshire.
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Citizens for Safe Water around Badger:
CSWAB is proud to be one of 17 organizations from around Wisconsin urging the DNR to develop protective Water Quality Standards for PFAS – a group of persistent bioaccumulative toxins that are currently unregulated.
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High levels of PFAS have been detected in the state’s groundwater, surface water, wetlands and fisheries – placing the health of our environment at risk. Our October 1 joint letter is posted here. What we know about PFAS in Wisconsin today is just the tip of the iceberg. To learn more, our NEW fact sheet about PFAS in Wisconsin is posted here.
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Wisconsin State Senator Jon Erpenbach and State Representative Dave Considine sent a joint letter to the U.S. Army Environmental Command supporting our resolution for PFAS testing near the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant. The October 4 letter states: “We are writing today to add our strong support to the resolution signed by over 100 citizens and
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Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) members asking the Army and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to prioritize public and private well testing in its planned investigation for per-and polyfluoroakyl substances (PFAS). As the state legislators representing the Merrimac and Sauk Prairie communities, we join their call for more extensive testing for PFAS.” T he complete letter is posted here.
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STEEP Superfund Research Program:
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the STEEP Superfund Research Program presented a screening of the documentary film The Devil We Know on Tuesday, October 16th at 6:00 p.m.
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The screening was co-hosted by the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, Association for Preservation of Cape Cod, and Barnstable Clean Water Coalition. The film was shown at the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Community and Government Center, 483 Great Neck Road South, Mashpee.
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The Devil We Know, by award-winning documentary filmmaker Stephanie Soechtig and featured at this year's prestigious Sundance Film Festival, chronicles one of the biggest environmental scandals of our time.
The film tells the story of a group of citizens in West Virginia as they take on a powerful corporation following the discovery that it had knowingly dumped PFASs into the drinking water supply. The October 16th The Devil We Know film screening and panel discussion drew an audience of approximately 100 people. There were many different community organizations represented among the attendees including Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Members, students and teachers, cancer support groups, religious organizations, military personnel, and town government. In addition, community partner Association to Preserve Cape Cod was in attendance.
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Green Science Policy Institute:
Tom Bruton and Arlene Blum presented this month at the annual meeting of the Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry in Sacramento. Check out Arlene's talk on "A Communication Strategy to Limit the Use of PFAS" and Tom's talk on "Sustainable Alternatives for Long-Chain PFAS in Firefighting Foam" here.
Excellent news on a related note is that on October 5, federal legislation was enacted to remove a rule that requires U.S. airports to use firefighting foam containing PFAS. Use of firefighting foam is a major source of PFAS contamination, so this should mean healthier drinking water for those living near airports. This bipartisan legislation passed by a large majority in both the House and Senate-and it began when we shared the idea at our March monthly webinar for Hill staff just eight months ago!
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Silent Spring Institute:
Silent Spring Institute is excited to announce the launch of a new study, PFAS-REACH (Research, Education, and Action for Community Health), that will investigate PFAS exposures and their impacts on children’s health and work with communities affected by PFAS water contamination. Silent Spring will be collaborating with researchers at Northeastern University and Michigan State University and community partners from Testing for Pease, Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition, and Toxics Action Center on this five-year study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
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Laurel Schaider was a panelist at a screening of the film The Devil We Know hosted by the STEEP Superfund Research Program and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe on Cape Cod. She updated residents on STEEP and PFAS-REACH at Silent Spring’s annual research update on Cape Cod, and was quoted in an NPR piece on PFASs in drinking water.
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SSEHRI PFAS Project:
The Organizing Committee of the 2017 PFAS Conference is happy to announce that a second conference will be held in Boston, June 10-11, 2019 at Northeastern
University.
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The significant growth in the number of contaminated sites, public awareness, community organizing, public policy, advisories and regulation, scientific research, and media attention calls us to once again bring together the array of participants that made the first conference so successful. NIEHS Director Linda Birnbaum has agreed to be a keynote speaker. We will have more details soon, but please mark your calendars.
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The Organizing Committee is, alphabetically: Andrea Amico (Testing for Pease), Sylvia Broude (Toxics Action Center), Phil Brown (Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, Northeastern University), Courtney Carignan (Michigan State University), Alissa Cordner (Whitman College), Michelle Dalton (Testing for Pease), Alayna Davis (Testing for Pease), Shaina Kasper (Toxics Action Center), Andrew Lindstrom (US Environmental Protection Agency), Lauren Richter (Silent Spring Institute and Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute, Northeastern University), and Laurel Schaider (Silent Spring Institute).
Following the PFAS Conference, on June 12 the URI STEEP (Sources, Transport, Exposure and Effects of PFASs) Superfund Research Center, working with the PFAS Conference Organizing Committee, will host a 1-day workshop on the current state of science on PFASs. Topics will cover toxicology/health effects, human exposure, detection and transport of PFASs in the environment.
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