Read the full article by Jeff McMenemy

“PORTSMOUTH — Andrea Amico, the Portsmouth activist and mother of three, is taking her efforts to help protect people from dangerous PFAS chemicals to Washington, D.C.

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., invited Amico to testify at the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee’s Sept. 26 hearing on ‘the Federal Role in the Toxic PFAS Chemical Crisis.’

Amico received a call last Friday from Hassan’s office, asking her to testify at the hearing. ‘I was incredibly honored to be invited to go to Washington, D.C. and testify,’ Amico said.

The hearing will be broken into two parts, Amico said. Representatives from government agencies will testify in the first part, and the second will focus on ‘impacted community members.’

‘I hope to bring the community perspective of New Hampshire residents there, but also the perspective of advocates from across the country who I’ve gotten to know through my work on a national PFAS coalition,’ Amico said…

Amico, co-founder of the community activist group Testing for Pease, has been an advocate for people to learn about the health impacts of PFAS exposure since May 2014, when the city shut down its Haven well at Pease International Tradeport after the Air Force found high levels of perfluorooctane sulfonic acid, or PFOS…

Two of Amico’s young children and her husband were exposed to the contaminated water at the tradeport.

Hassan called Amico ‘a steadfast advocate for her family and neighbors in the area who have been exposed to contamination in their drinking water from PFAS chemicals.’

‘This hearing will serve as an important opportunity for members of Congress to hear directly from health and science experts, community leaders like Andrea, public safety officials, and others about what is truly needed to keep Granite Staters and Americans safe from the dangers of PFAS and to ensure that no one is forced to question the safety or quality of their drinking water,’ Hassan said.

Amico hopes to make the case for urgency. ‘We need our government to take action now to help communities that are suffering,’ she said. ‘And community members should not have to pay to clean up contamination and address health concerns.’

She also plans to speak about the need to set ‘much lower standards’ than the 70 ppt standard for PFOS and PFOA, and treat PFAS contaminants as a ‘class of chemicals.’ “