Read the full article by Jeff McMenemy (Seacoastonline)

“Portsmouth activist Andrea Amico attended the premiere of a new PFAS-centered documentary that focuses on how contamination at military bases affects the communities around it.

The documentary, ‘No Defense: The U.S. Military’s War on Water’ debuted in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Wednesday night.

Amico, co-founder of the community group Testing For Pease, thought it was important to fly out to attend the premiere.

‘It was a really great documentary. It highlights the community perspective and how people who have been exposed to water contaminated with PFAS are having issues with cancers and other health ailments,’ Amico said during a phone interview Thursday afternoon from a Michigan airport.

The documentary by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Sara Ganim focuses on PFAS contamination at the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda, Michigan. Like the former Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth and Newington, the former Michigan base is now a Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) site.

‘There’s a lot of films out now about PFAS, whether it’s ‘Dark Waters’ or ‘The Devil We Know,’ but this is the first documentary that specifically focuses on PFAS contamination at DOD (Department of Defense) sites,’ Amico said. ‘As we know there’s hundreds of DOD sites around the country that are dealing with PFAS contamination, which is what happened at Pease’…

Thousands of people working at the former Pease Air Force Base, now Pease International Tradeport, along with children and infants who attended two day cares there, were exposed to multiple PFAS chemicals from contaminated water in the city-owned Haven well until its closure in 2014. Air Force officials believe the water was contaminated by firefighting foam used at the base.

Human health risks from exposure to PFAS chemicals, which are now commonly called forever chemicals because of how long they take to break down in nature and the human body, include birth defects, various forms of cancer and immune system dysfunction.

The documentary focuses on the contamination in Michigan, but the director also reached out to community leaders across the country and asked them to submit videos about their experiences with PFAS, Amico said. She submitted a video, as did Doris Brock, widow of Kendall Brock, a 35-year Air National Guard member who died in June 2017 from bladder and prostate cancer after serving at Pease…