Michigan Plans Special Testing to Assess PFAS Impact

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Michigan Plans Special Testing to Assess PFAS Impact

In December, state officials will start   testing the blood serum of residents in Kent County to better understand the impact of the contamination by forever chemicals.

By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News

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State health officials plan to start testing the blood serum of residents in Kent County to study the link between drinking water with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, and the resulting increase in a person’s body. 

The assessment will test blood serum and drinking water samples from roughly 800 residents, half of which have been exposed to high PFAS levels through their water supply and half of which have low to no PFAS in their water.

Though the full assessment is expected to take two years, the state will work to get individual blood serum results to participants within two to four months after the blood draw, said Angela Minicucci, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

“We chose Kent County first because they have had the highest number of homes with levels that exceeded the EPA advisory level,” and those PFAS levels were the highest in the state, Minicucci said.

Sandy Wynn-Stelt testified at a Nov. 13 hearing in Grand Rapids that drinking water at her Belmont home near a Wolverine Worldwide dumpsite has tested between 27,000 and 78,000 parts per trillion for PFAS, extraordinarily higher than the federal health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion. Wynn-Stelt’s blood serum tested at 5,000,000 parts per trillion in November 2017.

Read the full story at Detroit News

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