Science Friday - How PFAS From A Military Base Has Sickened Nearby Residents

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

For decades, residents of the small city of Newburgh, New York, were unknowingly drinking water contaminated with toxic PFAS—also known as forever chemicals. The source turned out to be firefighting foam used on a nearby air base that had seeped into streams and creeks, and ultimately the city’s main drinking water reservoir.Now, Newburgh is one of 10 sites that are part of a CDC-led study investigating the health effects of PFAS exposure. Early data out of Newburgh links PFAS with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Host Flora Lichtman discusses the research with environmental epidemiologist Erin Bell and reporter Shantal Riley.Read our full story about what PFAS contamination has meant for Newburgh in English and in Spanish.Guests: Shantal Riley is an award-winning journalist and science writer, focused on environmental health.Dr. Erin Bell is an environmental epidemiologist at the University at Albany in New York.Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

I'm Flora Lichtenen and you're listening to Science Friday. Today in the show, studying the link between our health and forever chemicals. They might take hundreds to thousands of years to break down in the environment, and some of them take years to be eliminated from the human body. We're headed to Newburgh, New York. It's a small city, about 70 miles north of New York City. And for decades, residents were unknowingly drinking water contaminated with toxic Pethas, aka Forever Chemicals.

Now the CDC is studying the health effects of PFAS exposure in Newburgh, along with nine other sites. Preliminary data from city residents links PFAS with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Here to tell us more are Dr. Aaron Bell, environmental epidemiologist at the University at Albany in New York, who led the Newburgh study, and Chantel Riley, a health and science reporter who's been covering PFAS for years. Welcome to Science Friday. Thank you very much. Thanks for having this. Okay, let's start with some definitions. When we talk about PFS, what are we talking about? Sure. Per and polyfluoral alkalis substances, PFS, for short, is a family of chemicals that includes anywhere from 9,000 to 12,000 separate chemicals used in manufacturing and in firefighting foam. Historically, they've been used as non-stick coating, Teflon, for example, in our cookware, also in rain or water-resistant clothing, and certainly in the firefighting foam,

as I mentioned. They're a concern because they tend to stay in our bodies and in an environment for very long time, so we refer to them as persistent chemicals, and they can interrupt or interfere with our hormonal processes in our bodies. I've also heard of PFOA and P-FOS, P-FOS. Are those, do those fall under the umbrella of PFS chemicals? Yes, they do. And the PFOA was in fact the first chemical that was highlighted as a chemical of concern in the early 2000s as we started to understand the health effects related to these chemicals. PFS are incredibly tough. They're dubbed forever chemicals because they do not break down in the environment. So they're made up of a chain of carbon atoms that are surrounded by fluorine atoms. And so they have this carbon fluorine bond. And it's one of the

strongest bonds known in chemistry. And so this makes them resistant to heat, water, oil, grease. It makes them slippery. It makes them resistant to stains and corrosion. They're also very persistent. And researchers think they might take anywhere in the range of hundreds to thousands of years to break down in the environment. And they also take, some of them take years to be eliminated. from the human body. Chantelle, let's talk about Newburgh. When did the PFS contamination come to light there? The PFS water crisis in Newburgh was made public in and around 2016. So I was a newspaper reporter covering Newburgh at the time. And like most people, I had no clue what PFS were. They were quickly traced back to the Stewart Air Base, which is about a mile outside of the city. like other air bases and military bases around the country, PFS were being used there in

specific kind of fire foam called A-Triple-F. And it was used to fight fires, but it was also used to train firefighters. So there was very little information at the time about the possible health impacts of PFS. The EPA, however, had set an advisory level of 70 parts per trillion. for PFOA and PFS, PFOS, combined at the time. It was not an enforceable rule. It was just a safety level that- A warning. Right. And so the city's main drinking water reservoir had about double that amount of P-FAS. And just so you understand how toxic this stuff is, one part per trillion is equal to one drop in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Wow. One drop in 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools is one part per trillion, right?

Correct. And the EPA advisory was like 70 drops in 20 Olympic swimming pools. Correct. And so the state stepped in and built a filtration system at the city's water plant. And then later, it paid for clean water from the Catskill Aqueduct to supply the city's drinking water. Erin, you've studied this community. What have you found? Back in 2016, when the New York State Department of Health began doing the biomonitry, we found higher than average levels of PFOS and PFFXS in particular.

And both of those are components of firefighting found. And you found them in people's bodies? That's right. We found them in the blood testing, both adults and children at levels higher than what we were seeing. at the national levels. When we did that biomonitrine, there was a brief survey, a health survey also administered. And we saw higher rates of high blood pressure, as well as suggested higher rates of coronary artery disease and potentially also cholesterol with the higher levels of PFOS. So this information is important because it will help us better plan and understand the

data analysis we are currently conducting in the much larger study sponsored and paid for by the Centers for Disease Control. Do we have any sense of a possible mechanism of action, how some of these chemicals might cause cardiovascular disease, for example? With these, particularly the long-lasting or highly persistent chemicals like PFOA and PFOS, we refer to them as endocrine disruptors, meaning they interfere with our hormonal systems. And that is why we often see and examine health outcomes related to things like the functioning of the thyroid, the immunology system, the digestive system, some cancers. It's also neurodevelopment and children are all very much correlated with the functions of our hormonal systems, and so we're always concerned about that.

So there's been a number of studies that does show that these couples have the ability to interfere with our body's normal functioning. Shantel, you've interviewed residents of Newburgh. What do you hear from them? Well, they're scared. They're worried for their own health. They're worried for the health of their families. They're also very angry.

This has been dragged on for so long. Nine years later, the Air Force, unbelievably, is still in the planning phases of its cleanup. Yes. They have still. not conducted a full cleanup at the airbase, and there are still PFAS chemicals circulating within Newburgh's watershed. And so it's been a very long and painful weight. You know, a couple of years ago, the EPA set limits for six different, for six different PFAS chemicals and

drinking water. I think it was the very first law to do that. Does that law still stand? No. No, the short answer is no. So under the Biden EPA, they set a limit what's known as a maximum contaminant level. But in May, the Trump EPA rescinded the rule for four of those chemicals, but left it in place for Phafos and PFOA. But they delayed that rule until 2031. So a lot can happen in six years. A lot of people can be exposed in six years. There's a lot of contamination that can go on. A few days after the Trump administration took over, the EPA reversed another rule that would have curbed PFAS and industrial wastewater. A plan to designate PFOA and PIFAS as hazardous substances has also fallen by the wayside. You add this to the severe cuts that are taking place at the EPA right now.

The agency has ended many grants for research and research on PFS. And so it's not at all good in terms of clean water. So it seems like we can't rely on the federal government to regulate them, at least right now. What about states? Are states regulating these chemicals? They absolutely are. So each state is different. So it's a big mixed bag in terms of regulations, state to state. New York currently has a limit of 10 parts per trillion for Pofoa and Phaas. It also bans the same. sales of carpets and toys with PFAS, food packaging with PFAS, clothing and outdoor gear and fire foam with PFAS, California bands PFS in menstrual products, main bands, the spreading

of PFS in biosludge or biosolids, which is a type of fertilizer. So the states, in short, are very, very key in helping to manage the spread of. PFS and it's really filling a void that the federal government has left behind. So the CDC study is focusing on these 10 communities where we know there's contamination. Do we understand the scale of exposure across the United States? There is some data on the number of public water systems that have been affected by PFS. So the environmental working group currently estimates that 100,000, 165 million people approximately are now exposed to PFAS through polluted drinking water systems across the country. So you both have such deep expertise on this. Do you personally try to limit your exposure to PFS chemicals?

Yes. Yes. I have a reverse osmosis filtration system under my sink. There are also, pitchers and point-of-use filters that you can put on your faucets or you can add to your home plumbing system to filter out PFAS coming into your home. There are some positive things happening too in terms of PFAS prevention or PFAS pollution prevention. There's growing awareness of the dangers of PFAS in drinking water and PFAS exposure. Hard to call that a positive, exactly. Well, awareness matters because it can lead to the kind of organization that we're seeing in communities like Newburgh, where people are advocating for themselves. People can also go to their public water utilities to find out if there are PFAS in the public water, in their tap water.

So that information is available publicly. But what we really, really need are strong laws that protect us from PFAS exposure at the state and federal level. And it seems like every time there's some progress at the federal level, we then have a change of administration and then we take two steps back. I want to thank you both for joining me today. Thank you very much. Thanks for having us. Chantelle Riley is a health and science writer based in New York, and Dr. Aaron Bell is an environmental epidemiologist at the University at Albany in New York. To learn more about this research, head to ScienceFriday.com slash PFS, PFS.

Thanks for listening. Don't forget to rate and review us if you like the show. And you can always leave us a comment on this segment on Spotify. We'd love to hear from you. Today's episode was produced by Rasha Aredi. I'm Flora Lickman. Thanks for listening.