“The long-term health effects are unclear,” Dr. Benjamin Chan, New Hampshire state epidemiologist, acknowledged during the meeting.
In comparison, residents in southern New Hampshire with private wells who have had their blood recently tested had an average of 4.4 micrograms per liter of PFOA contamination in their blood serum — slightly higher than the MVD customers.
“This really is way too complicated to understand,” Michael Oleniak said at Tuesday’s hearing.
While Elaine Oleniak’s data revealed 7.19 micrograms per liter of PFOA, her husband’s data showed 11.5 micrograms.
MVD water supply wells are monitored for contamination and are currently below the Environmental Protection Agency’s PFOA health advisory level of 70 parts per trillion (ppt).
According to Clark Freise, New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services assistant commissioner, the MVD public wells are averaging about 16 ppt of PFOA for 2017, but have reached up to 25 ppt — still below the health advisory level.
Christina Sullivan is one of the MVD water customers who just received her family’s blood test results.
Her results showed a level of PFOA in her bloodstream at 3.56 micrograms per liter.
According to the MVD blood tests, PFOA serum concentrations ranged from less than 3 microgram per liter to more than 7. It also indicates that the PFOA presence increases with age, increases based on the amount of water consumed daily and increases among households within 1.5 miles of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, deemed the likely source of the contamination.