Related — NH eyes quick timeline for new PFAS limits in drinking water
“EXETER — Multiple area states have set more protective – or more extensive – health standards for PFAS contaminants than the state of New Hampshire.
Health officials from all over New England appeared at the Environmental Protection Agency’s second day of its PFAS event, where they were asked to talk about their health standards for PFAS chemicals and how they developed them.
Vermont has the most protective standard for the man-made and toxic chemicals, which are characterized by their highly persistent nature and inability to break down in the environment or in people’s bodies. Vermont’s Health Department recommends the sum of five PFAS chemicals – PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFHpA and PFNA should not exceed 20 parts per trillion.
The EPA has set a health advisory of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA, but no other of thousands of PFAS chemicals. New Hampshire follows that same standard set by the EPA.
Peter Walke, deputy secretary of Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources, said Tuesday his state used the same science as the EPA did when studying PFAS chemicals, but established a lower health level.
Walke said Vermont ‘just made different assumptions…about the risk to the most vulnerable population’ posed by PFOS and PFOA.
‘We essentially used a nursing infant and mother,’ he said to applause from the crowd of about 200 people at Exeter High School, which led to the lower level.
Robert Kaliszewski, deputy commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the state Department of Public Health has set a standard of 70 ppt for the total of five PFAS chemicals, PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS and PFHpA.
During Tuesday’s event, Kaliszewski said because other states have been ‘forced to react quickly’ to PFAS contamination, it has ‘led to a bunch of numbers’ being developed for state levels. That’s why Connecticut is ‘looking for EPA to take the leadership on this,’ he said.”
Read the full article by Jeff McMenemy