Village of Hoosick Falls - Health Risks of PFCs
Source: NYSBA New York Environmental Lawyer, 36(2):88-111, Fall 2016.
The New York State Bar Association’s New York Environmental Lawyerhas published an article by Dr. Robert A. Michaels entitled Perfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs) in the Village of Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer County, New York: health risks and successive approximation toward enforceable national regulation.
Dr. Michaels notes that “PFCs, most notably PFOA and PFOS found in drinking water in the ppt [parts per trillion] range at which they are toxic, reveal the need for routine monitoring, aggressive cleanup, and promulgation of enforceable regulation to control human exposure, prevent disease, and help to clarify accountability, thereby preventing similar incidents elsewhere.
“In short, PFOA exhibits a ‘perfect storm’ of troubling properties: essentially infinite lifetime in the environment, resistance to human metabolism, bioconcentration in the food chain, transmissibility to infants via breastfeeding, years-long excretion half-time in the human body, and causation of human cancer and non-cancer effects.”
The article is posted on the Internet at: