MERRIMACK – The results of testing conducted on the tap water drawn from the kitchens of several Merrimack schools shows perfluorooctanoic acid – or PFOA – at levels well below the state’s provisional 100 part per trillion concentration limit. But members of the school board are still concerned over the presence of any amount of the potentially dangerous chemical.

"As you know, my stand is to eliminate or make it undetectable in the water system,for our children," Michael Thompson, the newest board member, said at a board meeting last week. "Going forward, I want to understand how the administration or the board might take actions on this."

PFOA exposure has been linked to several serious diseases, including some forms of cancer, according to state and federal officials.

Merrimack board member Andy Schneider said that he thinks the board needs to have more information before they make a decision.

"Obviously this is a
ripple-down effect, starting from the well readings, and you’ve got Saint-Gobain, you’ve got the Merrimack Village District that services us, and then you have the district," he said. "We’ve talked about ranges from 20 parts per trillion in Vermont or up to 100 in New Hampshire. Depending on who you talk to, some people want net zero, others want whatever the EPA range is … I think that we have to have all the data in front of us to understand what this is, but in a timely fashion … I think we have to be pragmatic about what we do."

PFOA has been detected in the water surrounding the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant at levels as high as 1,600 parts per trillion. The recommended safe short-term exposure limit for PFOA is 400 parts per trillion. There is no lifetime exposure limit for PFOA currently published, but the EPA is expected to develop one this spring.

Saint-Gobain does not manufacture the chemical, but has historically used it in the production of various products. The company has since stopped using PFOA.

According to research done by Dr. Philippe Grandjean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the presence of PFOA at levels of more than 1 part per trillion is unsafe for human consumption.

"We have examined the adverse effects of PFOA on children’s immune system – in particular, their ability to generate specific antibodies in response to childhood vaccinations," he said. "PFOA exposure both prenatally – while they were in their mother’s womb – and after birth is associated with a diminished vaccination response, and some highly exposed children are not protected against the diseases, despite having been vaccinated."

"We used the EPA’s guidelines to calculate a water concentration limit that would protect against these adverse effects and arrived at a level of about 1 part per trillion," he said.

The school board is still waiting on the results of soil samples taken from the Reeds Ferry School playground.

The board made no motion regarding the contamination of water at district schools.

For more information about the testing results, visit www.merrimack.k12.nh.us/files/filesystem/PFOA%20Results.pdf.

Matthew Medsger can be reached at 594-6531, mmedsger@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_MattM.

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