“PORTSMOUTH – Members of the Pease Community Assistance Panel (CAP) blasted the head of a federal agency after he wouldn’t commit to including Pease in the first-ever national health study on PFC exposure.
Patrick Breysse, the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, told CAP members that he was ‘optimistic’ that money would be approved for the study.
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., included an amendment that was passed as part of the Defense Authorization Bill that authorized the Department of Defense to do the national study.
Breysse stated that the ATSDR would continue working toward doing a Pease-only health study for adults and children exposed to PFCs at the former Pease Air Force Base, but he repeatedly declined to say the Seacoast community would be part of what ATSDR is now calling a ‘multi-site study.’
‘(I’m) not in a position to commit tonight to who is going to be in this multi-state study,’ Breysse said during the meeting Thursday night at the Department of Environmental Services building at Pease.
When asked what that meant, he said, ‘You don’t have a commitment from me tonight that you’re going to be part of the study.’
CAP member Andrea Amico, a Portsmouth mother whose children and husband were exposed to PFCs at the Pease International Tradeport, told Breysse, ‘I want you to understand that’s completely unacceptable.’ ”
Read the full article by Jeff McMenemy.