Hawaii allows dangerous levels of PFAS contamination in drinking water
State tells affected residents to purchase water filters
By Pat Elder
January 27, 2023
People in Kunia Village, Hawaii are drinking water with dangerous levels of PFAS, while the Hawaii Department of Health says the “low levels” do not pose “an acute health threat.” The state’s health department recommends that residents use a home filtration option to reduce PFAS.
PFOS was found at 50 parts per trillion; PFOA at 27 ppt.
There are few grownups in the room in Hawaii, aside from a couple tepid reporters and a small cadre of deeply alarmed environmentalists.
Sure, Hawaii is far away, but it is connected by the internet and other means of mass communication. Hawaii’s response to the presence of the deadly carcinogens in drinking water is comparable to what we heard from states years ago who have since cleaned up their acts.
Kunia’s highly contaminated water
The poor folks in Kunia Village are drinking water with total concentrations of PFAS at 264.98 ppt, while the state suggests they purchase water filter systems.
Hawaii’s Dept. of Health said in a press release that because PFAS chemicals are used in so many products, it is not uncommon to see low levels in drinking water. People just naturally seem to believe the state’s narrative on these things. Kunia’s levels for Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are 6,750 times over the current EPA health advisory. The levels for Perfluoro octane sulfonic acid, (PFOS) are 2,500 times over the EPA health advisory. The EPA is great at issuing these advisories, although they never get around to actually regulating anything.
Kunia Village is located on the site of the former Del Monte Plantation Camp in the Central Oahu farm belt.
Kunia Village is an affordable housing development serving persons in the agricultural industry with combined incomes not greater than 60% of the area median income limits established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
What the folks in Kunia Village don’t know can’t hurt them, right?
This is a women’s issue
PFOA in the tiniest concentrations causes pregnancy-induced hypertension in women. PFOA is associated with increased risk for sporadic miscarriage during the second half of the first trimester. PFOA is believed to cause significantly reduced infant birthweight. It is likely to cause birth abnormalities, preterm deliveries, stillbirths, and nervous system development problems in children. PFOA is associated with increased risk of ADHD and Autism in children. Other PFAS compounds have many of these impacts although PFOA may be the worst.
It's been almost four years since Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said PFOA ought to be limited to .1 part per trillion in drinking water due to the risk of pancreatic cancer. “If you look at the data, pancreatic tumors are present at very, very low concentrations from PFOA,” Birnbaum said then. Kunia Village’s water has 27 ppt of PFOA.
The EPA says we shouldn’t drink water exceeding .004 ppt of PFOA.
If the people get sick and women suffer with pregnancy complications, it’s their fault because they were warned and they did not purchase water filtration systems? I sure hope they have a good lawyer.
The alarming levels of PFOS in the drinking water suggest contamination of the region’s groundwater and surface water with this unique carcinogen. PFOS bioaccumulates in seafood at thousands of times the levels in the water, posing an even greater threat to people consuming fish.
How is it that Hawaii never got the memo on PFAS?
Maybe the Hawaii Department of Health knows better. Maybe they have data that clearly shows PFOA and PFOS don’t cause these problems. Perhaps women in Hawaii never suffer these conditions during pregnancy and the kids are fine, so it’s not an issue.
Nah. They know people are being poisoned and they’re not doing anything about it.
We need more grownups in the room.
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Special thanks to the Downs Law Group for their continued financial support. We couldn’t continue to create these reports at this pace without their help.
The firm is working to create a multi-base coalition to provide legal representation and blood testing to individuals with a high likelihood of exposure to PFAS and other contaminants.
Interested in joining a multi-base class action law suit pertaining to illnesses stemming from various kinds of environmental contamination?
Join the Veterans & Civilians Clean Water Alliance Facebook group. (2.1 K members and growing rapidly.)
Military Poisons and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, US are continuing to raise funds to cover the costs of PFAS seafood testing in Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, and Florida. You can make a tax-deductible contribution here. What’s in your fish? What’s in your blood?