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Statement from Adam Nordell, PFAS impacted farmer and Campaign Manager, Defend Our Health, in response to newly released review of medical literature on the toxic effects of PFAS “forever chemicals” and its implications for the State of Maine’s obligations to impacted Maine residents:

“The health impacts described in this report are terrifying. This should give us all a clear focus on how we help people suffering from PFAS exposure and underlines why we need to avoid future contamination. The environmental injustice here is undeniable given that the contamination is disproportionately impacting lower income communities and communities of color. So, if the path wasn’t clear before, now we know. Maine needs to offer free PFAS blood serum tests and cover the cost of screening and care for related diseases for anyone exposed to these chemicals. The State needs to follow-through on the commitments it made to its impacted farmers and other communities with the passage of LD 2013, and use a portion of the allocated $60 million to provide free testing and screening immediately.

The report points out that potentially impacted communities include those near sludge-spread farms, near waste water treatment plants, commercial airports, military bases, landfills and commercial incinerators. Anyone found to have a blood serum level above 2 parts per billion for a sum of 7 PFAS chemicals should be regularly screened for all of the diseases directly linked to PFAS identified in this report. Those include kidney cancer, raised cholesterol levels, reduced fetal and infant growth and decreased immune response. These findings strongly affirm the importance of our legislative advances towards getting PFAS out of the Maine environment, and emphasizes the critical work ahead to reduce our exposure and take care of impacted people.”