Read the full article by Keith Matheny (Detroit Free Press)
“The levels of ‘forever chemicals’ known as PFAS in tested North Kent County residents’ blood are higher than national averages — and the more unfiltered well water they drank contaminated with the nonstick compounds, the higher their blood contamination, the results of a Michigan Department of Health and Human Services exposure assessment found.
The findings, released by the state health department late Friday, confirm what many who live near a PFAS-using Rockford shoe manufacturer long suspected — that their PFAS-contaminated drinking water wells contributed to them having excessive PFAS exposures in their bodies. But the larger question they still hope is addressed — whether their exposures have led to increased cancer or other PFAS-connected illnesses — has not yet been answered by public health officials.
‘I probably could have saved the state thousands of dollars and said we’re going to be higher (in PFAS contamination) than anybody else. But I guess it’s what you have to do when you are doing research,’ said Sandy Wynn-Stelt, a Belmont resident whose home was across the street from a former Wolverine Worldwide Inc. landfill. The Rockford-based shoe manufacturer used PFAS compounds for many years for their water-resistant qualities.Wynn-Stelt and her husband, Joel, moved into their House Street home in 1992, unaware that the picturesque Christmas tree farm across the road used to be a landfill where Wolverine dumped its PFAS-laden industrial sludges.
Joel died of liver cancer in March 2016, only a few weeks after being diagnosed.” …