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EDITORIAL: Water safety: There's more than Pease contamination to deal with in our state

Keene Sentinel - 7/29/2018

July 29--A recent report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found New Hampshire had the highest pediatric cancer rate in the country from 2003 to 2014. This would be cause for alarm in any case, but among our state's congressional leaders, it triggered an immediate response.

There's been concern for several years about water contamination -- particularly via poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, once used at the former Pease Air Force Base and other industrial sites. Legislation in 2017 created the Commission on the Seacoast Cancer Cluster Investigation to look at a spike in cancer cases in that area.

And this past spring, lawmakers enacted a law to tighten water-quality regulations and appoint both a toxicologist and a human health risk assessor to figure out new standards for PFAS contamination by the new year. A measure of how seriously lawmakers took the issue: They actually agreed to fund the new positions.

The recent news regarding our state's childhood cancer rates ramped up calls for action. After all, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. (Let's hope that grease doesn't get into the groundwater.) Our congressional delegates called on the Trump administration to provide more specific information on why New Hampshire's children have a higher incidence of cancer, and particularly, to what degree PFAS exposure is a factor.

It's a good question, but the onus for figuring out why the state's pediatric cancer rate is so high doesn't fall just on the CDC and federal officials. It falls on the state as well. And it ought to extend beyond the study of PFAS contamination in the Seacoast region.

MTBE, or methyl tertiary butyl ether, is a gasoline additive designed to reduce air pollution. It was forced on America by Congress in 1990, at the behest of industry lobbyists, but eventually abandoned when it was found to pollute groundwater in many areas where it was used. During testing about a decade ago, MTBE was found in water supplies around the state, including wells at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge and near the former Four Corners Store in Richmond.

More recently, a group of West Swanzey residents has claimed it's in the water there and is responsible for increased incidence of cancer in a neighborhood there. While MTBE has avoided being officially labeled as cancer-causing in humans, such a link is strongly suspected by many, and studies have shown it to be a carcinogen for rats. It's also believed by some to cause birth defects, though again, that's not been proved.

The point to be taken is that while there certainly seems to be a serious health issue at play in communities near the former Air Force base, other parts of the state, including the Monadnock Region, have similar concerns. A 2016 study by Harvard University researchers indicated the presence of PFAS in this part of the state as well.

We'd hope, therefore, that not all the $11 million in funding received this past week to improve the safety of the state's water infrastructure will go toward the Pease area, and that calls for more information on the state's cancer rates and investigations of water safety will extend to the entire state.

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(c)2018 The Keene Sentinel (Keene, N.H.)

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