Federal report on PFAS levels in residents’ blood near Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base in Martinsburg, WV points to drinking water as likely source
Report downplays role of food, dust, and other factors
By Pat Elder
February 12, 2022
Photo - ATSDR
The Centers for Disease Control Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR) have conducted an exposure assessment in the community surrounding the Shepherd Field Air National Guard Base, West Virginia.
Researchers looked at PFAS levels in water, blood serum, urine, and household dust. 275 people from 165 households participated in the sample collection event in 2019. CDC/ATSDR points to the drinking water as the primary source of PFAS in this specific study and cohort.
Let’s start with a snapshot of the community-wide findings recently made public and then explore the rest of the story, as early shock jock Paul Harvey used to say.
Average blood levels of PFHxS in the Berkeley County participants are 2.5 times higher than national levels, while averages of other PFAS were not any higher. The elevated blood levels of PFHxS may be associated with past drinking water contamination, the study says.
“Typically, residents who had greater blood PFHxS levels also had greater blood PFOS and blood PFOA levels. This correlation suggests a common exposure source, such as the City of Martinsburg or Berkeley County PSWD public water supply, though other sources of exposure may also have contributed to the observed blood levels,” the study says. Higher blood levels of PFHxS were associated with those who lived in the area longest and likely drank more contaminated water.
The claim regarding the water makes sense, but the same logic holds true regarding longer exposures via other avenues of contamination originating from the ANG base.
The study found that age, sex, blood donation, kidney disease, and length of residency were associated with some PFAS blood levels. Males had higher blood levels of PFHxS, PFOS, and PFOA than females. Scientists believe this is due to expelling PFAS during menstruation and lactation in women.
The researchers analyzed 27 urine samples. Only perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA) was detected. It was found in 67% of the 27 samples analyzed. It’s intriguing. PFBA is known to accumulate in the lungs. Elevated plasma-PFBA concentrations have been tentatively associated with an increased risk of a more severe course of COVID-19. The backfin of Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs have been found with 800 parts per trillion of the chemical.
All of the Martinsburg tap water samples collected in 2019 met the EPA’s Health Advisory of 70 ppt for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water. PFHxS levels, along with other PFAS compounds, have been elevated in the tap water over the years and likely still are, because they’re still not regulated.
PFHxS has the longest estimated half-life (up to 35 years), compared to PFOS and PFOA. People in Martinsburg may be suffering the consequences of lax enforcement that has gone on for years. The same is true across the country.
If West Virginia enforced lower limits for PFAS in drinking water, like many states that limit a basket of PFAS compounds to 20 ppt, we probably wouldn’t see such elevated PFAS levels in blood. It’s also becoming clear that the EPA’s 70 ppt advisory for just two PFAS compounds - PFOS and PFOA - is not protective of public health.
PFHxS was first detected in the City of Martinsburg’s Big Springs well in 2014. It is likely the contamination began earlier, but no data are available before 2014. This is criminally negligent because military authorities have known of the devastating health impacts of this suite of chemicals since the 1970’s. They liked the way PFAS helped put out fires and they still do.
Studies show associations between PFHxS exposure and liver damage and decreased antibody response to vaccines.
Human health be damned. Humanity be damned.
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Martinsburg PFAS levels
in drinking water in 2014
PFHxS 105 ppt
PFOS 114
PFOA 46
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Martinsburg PFAS levels
in Tap water in 2019
PFHxS 63 ppt
PFOS 33
PFOA 13
PFHpA 5.5
PFHxA 8.8
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The water is just part of the problem
The CDC/ATSDR questionnaire asked participants how often they consume locally grown fruits and vegetables, locally caught fish, and milk from animals in the sampling frame. Too few participants reported consuming locally caught fish (n=7) or locally produced milk (n=7) to allow for meaningful statistical analyses, so a statistically significant relationship was not observed between consumption of locally grown fruits and vegetables and blood PFAS levels.
They basically discounted this pathway as not significant in this cohort, based on answers to their survey. This is an acceptable way to apply statistical cumulative, contributory data. I get it. They have a defensible argument and comparative basis for why they've chosen drinking water as the primary source of PFAS in this specific study and cohort.
However, the Martinsburg report generally leaves us thinking that PFAS from food is not much of a concern. The CDC/ASTDR produced the same conclusions in a study of PFAS in the community surrounding Newcastle AFB in Delaware.
Federal agencies are downplaying food as a pathway to human ingestion.
The DOD is leading the way. A recent North Carolina Public Radio story about PFAS contamination at Bogue Field, a Marine Corps installation on the mainland across from Emerald Isle, never addressed the potentially contaminated surface waters or the impact on fish and wildlife.
It relays the DOD’s template for handling the press in the face of this overwhelming, multidimensional human health crisis.
Richard Kidd, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Environment and Energy Resilience, is always very reassuring, “To the Department of Defense’s knowledge, no one in America, on or off installations, is drinking water that has PFAS in it above EPA’s established levels that was caused by the Department of Defense.”
It sure sounds great, but DOD Secretary Kidd left out the part where the wastewater treatment plants and toxic landfills from military bases poison the rivers and the seafood and the wildlife. He fails to mention what happens to the toxic sewer sludge from the bases and how they’re typically spread on farm fields that grow poisonous crops. Kidd doesn’t address how various toxic PFAS compounds permeate the banks of the rivers and the creeks in this beautiful region of eastern North Carolina and become airborne, creating another pathway to human ingestion.
Nope. It’s all about the water and the water is fine!
At a cost of tens of thousands of dollars, the DOD is drilling 23 wells to test groundwater for PFAS at Bogue Field, NC.
A $79 water sampling kit of a creek, draining from the fire training site into Bogue Sound, might tell a different story.
Photo - Jay Price, WUNC
The federal government’s PFAS game plan is to focus on drinking water
CDC/ASTDR ought to be testing food from the local grocery store and from people’s refrigerators in Martinsburg. Most of the PFAS in our bodies comes from the food we eat. For instance, we know PFHxS is bioaccumulative in fish. At a minimum, the study should have looked at the seven who indicated they ate the local fish.
Eggs, milk, fruits, and vegetables have been clearly documented with dangerous levels of the compounds in locations across the country. These sources are discounted by CDC/ATSDR in this study. Fish have been caught near military installations with concentrations of 10 million parts per trillion of PFOS/PFOA in filet! An ounce of this super-contaminated fish can deliver more PFOS than drinking 2 liters of water containing concentrations of 70 ppt for an 80 year lifetime.
The focus of the studies and the messaging by the federal government are problematic.
ATSDR reported in its 2015 public health statement on perfluoroalkyls that food is the primary source of exposure to perfluoroalkyls, They’ve being honest with us and they still are. It’s just that they’re not telling us the rest of the story.
The FDA is part of the problem too. It says we shouldn’t be worried about concentrations of PFAS in the food we eat. They say they have no scientific evidence indicating a need to avoid any food. Michigan tested more than 2,000 fish and found the average to contain 80,000 ppt of PFOS and that’s OK with the FDA.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) isn’t any help either. They still say studies have found “possible” human health risks to PFAS exposure. The USDA says that no adverse health effects are anticipated to occur below the 70 ppt level for PFOS and PFOA in drinking water. They say there are no published maximum contaminant levels under the Safe Drinking Water Act and no PFAS compounds are listed as a hazardous substance under CERCLA. They mention food packaging that contains PFAS, but they don’t mention the food and they don’t regulate it, even though eggs in Maine contain concentrations of 37,000 ppt of PFOS. Steak in Michigan contains 2,480 ppt of PFOS. The fish are much worse.
The EPA is talking its very best game ever, but it still does not regulate the compounds. It too is focused almost exclusively on the drinking water.
The CDC/ASTDR report also downplays the dust in Martinsburg
CDC/ASTDR says that none of the PFAS measured in the household dust samples near the Air Force base were statistically correlated with the same PFAS measured in participants’ blood, although the sample size for dust measurements in Berkeley County is very small, and they only reported blood results for 5 compounds. They concluded, "The dust results are exploratory and should be interpreted with caution. They are based on a limited set of samples, and in some cases those samples are based on a small sample amount."
Photo - Pat Elder
OK., then, the following is a cautionary statement: PFHxS and PFOS had the highest concentrations in groundwater and surface water on the base. The same compounds also topped the list for concentrations in blood serum and dust in the surrounding community.
The report says the levels of dust contamination measured are comparable to those reported in selected U.S. studies, although no nationally representative comparison values are available.
The 2015 ASTDR Public Health notice cited above describes how PFAS may be carried through soil by groundwater and flooding and become airborne during windy conditions. PFHxS is volatile and is persistent in air, so, long-range atmospheric transport of this contaminant is important to consider. Dust is made of fine particles of solid matter including particles in the atmosphere that come from soil lifted by wind.
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Although the Air Force did not release results on N-MeFOSE, MeFOSAA, and N-EtFOSE on base, their concentrations in household dust were extremely high. These compounds are used in household products like packaging, carpets, and textiles, and they’ve also been found at high levels in meat, fish, and eggs. These and other PFAS compounds, like PFHxS, have been found in extraordinarily high concentrations in firehouse dust where aqueous film-forming foam, (AFFF) has been used.
The Air Force ought to be more transparent by divulging all of the PFAS compounds they’ve discarded into our environment. We only know what they tell us.
Household dust has been found in homes close to Shepherd Field with concentrations up to 16.4 million ppt of PFHxS. It is likely making people sick. Shouldn’t folks be warned when they empty their vacuum cleaners? Should vacuums and brooms become a thing of the past? A sponge mop may be a better alternative, although it’ll likely result in these chemicals winding up in wastewater treatment plants to start the pesky “forever chemical” cycle all over again.
Don’t worry, be happy.
The Martinsburg study says the presence of carpets in homes was not statistically associated with blood PFAS levels among adults and neither was the frequency of fast food consumption. There was no statistically significant relationship for self-reported soil contact frequency and blood PFAS levels in adults or children. Participants with a self-reported use of stain-resistant products use did not have statistically elevated blood levels of any PFAS when compared to participants who reported never using these products.
Carpets, fast food packaging, soil conditioners, and stain-resistant products all get the wink and the nod in this federal study. Don’t worry, be happy.
The message from multiple federal agencies is for us to keep the levels of PFOS and PFOA under 70 ppt in drinking water and everything will be fine.