Some individuals are blaming the toxic chemical PFC, which is found in every day household products for the spate health problems in New Hampshire, including a rare childhood cancer cluster.
Over the years, children who grew up on Breakfast Hill Road and spent their lives playing in the areas near the rail bed and landfills in the area have been diagnosed with cancer. It took a while for people to realise that these were not isolated cases and that in fact there seemed to be a “cancer cluster†in the area.
State Representative Mindi Messmer alerted state health officials when children in the region were diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS), an incredibly rare cancer and another rare cancer, pleuropulmonary blastoma (PPB).
Both State Rep. Messmer and Dr. Tom Sherman are involved with the governor’s task force for the Seacoast Cancer Cluster, and Dr. Sherman said:
“There are some parents that have lost their child; there’s some whose children are very sick and they don’t know whether their child is going to survive.”
Parents are concerned that the rare childhood cancers could be linked to toxic chemicals such as 1,4 Dioxane and emerging contaminants called perfluorinated chemicals (PFCS), that are found in wells near the Superfund site.
Epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan, who is leading the investigation into PFC contamination for the state of New Hampshire, says he can understand that people are concerned as nobody wants to know that there are harmful chemicals in their drinking water.
Elevated levels of PFCs have been found in the blood of both adults and children living in the Pease and Saint Gobain areas.
High levels of PFCs have been shown to affect the liver, thyroid, and reproductive systems in animal testing, and State health officials agree that the chemicals are cause for concern but say that there is no conclusive link to the cancer cluster or other illnesses.
“It’s very difficult to say if someone has been exposed to these chemicals what their risk is or whether they will develop any health affects at all from these,” Dr. Chan said.
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