State struggles to understand impact on health, environment from man-made chemicals
On Monday, Frannie Nilsen, a toxicologist at the state Department of Environmental Quality, told the agency's science advisory board that Gen X and four other PFAS compounds show up in more than half the wells they sampled near the Chemours plants in Bladen and Cumberland counties.
Posted — UpdatedYour browser doesn't support HTML5 video.
That makes them especially dangerous to human and animal health and difficult to deal with and very expensive to clean up when they get into the environment. In North Carolina, scientists seem to find more of them everywhere they look – including in drinking water, fish and people.
Ever since one such chemical, Gen X, was found in the Cape Fear River and drinking water in the Wilmington area four years ago, state regulators have been trying to figure out how to deal with it and other emerging contaminants.
"Gen X has health advisories in three states, North Carolina being one of them, but there is no official regulation for any of these," Nilsen said.
John Vandenberg, who recently retired as the Environmental Protection Agency's chief on human health risks, is also on the state panel. He had to double check the numbers he was hearing.
Your browser doesn't support HTML5 video.
PFAS contamination has been popping up in a lot of places, from Wake County to Shelby, near Charlotte.
The panel is trying to help the state figure out how to regulate these compounds. Other states are doing the same. But it's difficult. There are thousands of the compounds, and chemical manufacturers aren’t even required to disclose what they’re putting in the water.
A bill that passed the U.S. House would change that, but the Senate has not yet taken it up.
Related Topics
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.