In 
response 
to 
growing 
concern 
regarding 
per-and 
polyfluoroalkyl 
substances 
(PFAS), the Centers for Disease 
Control and Prevention and 
Michigan’s 
Department 
of 
Health and Human Services 
announced in September they 
will begin working together to 
determine the harmful health 
effects of PFAS in drinking water 
on Michigan residents.
PFAS are a wide variety 
of 
chemicals 
produced 
by 
manufacturing, 
industrial 
and agricultural processes. In 
Michigan and some other states 
across the country, PFAS is a 
growing threat to drinking water. 
Ann Arbor residents have become 

increasingly concerned with the 
levels of PFAS contamination in 
Washtenaw County, especially 
in the Huron River. Last May, 
the city launched a transparency 
initiative to detail updates on 
water quality. 
The state of Michigan has 
more sites contaminated with 
PFAS than any other in the 
United States. As a result, the 
CDC and DHHS will examine 
PFAS exposure in Parchment/
Cooper Township and North 
Kent County. 
In a September press release, 
Patrick 
Breysse, 
director 
of 
the CDC’s National Center for 
Environmental Health, said the 
effort would help researchers 
learn more about the effects of 
PFAS exposure.
“There 
is 
much 
that 
is 

unknown about the health effects 
of exposure to these chemicals,” 
Breysse wrote. “The multi-site 
study will advance the scientific 
evidence on the human health 
effects of PFAS and provide some 
answers to communities exposed 
to the contaminated drinking 
water.”
Terese Olson, professor of civil 
and environmental engineering, 
said PFAS contamination is 
ultimately a sustainability issue.
“Here you have emissions 
of these compounds in the 
environment that aren’t going to 
go anywhere,” Olson said. “And 
(they) will only build up. It makes 
no sense. It’s unsustainable.”
Due to PFAS resistance to 
things like grease and water, 
PFAS have been used for stain-
resistant materials and cleaning 
products. 
However, 
because of their incredibly 
strong 
carbon-fluorine 
bonds, PFAS are not easily 
broken down, leading to 
elevated levels of PFAS 
in food, water, and the 
human body. Exposure 
to PFAS could increase 
cancer risk and cholesterol 
levels, as well as impede 
child development. 
Of the 30 groundwater 
samples taken in Saline at 
the Washtenaw Industrial 
Facility, 24 were reported 
to have PFAS levels either 
greater than or equal to the 
standard allowed by the 
Environmental Protection 
Agency, which is 70 parts 
per trillion. 
These high levels are 
not restricted to Saline. 
For 
LSA 
senior 
Tyler 
Schaub, this news hit close 
to home. His hometown 
of Muskegon has also 
experienced levels much 
higher 
than 
the 
EPA 
standard. 
“I’m 
originally 

from 
Muskegon, 
Michigan,” 
Schaub said. “And there’s been 
households 
in 
Muskegon, 
Michigan, that have had (levels) 
up to 400 plus.”
 The city has provided water 
bottles and filters to some of the 
homes affected. Olson explained 
how different cities react to PFAS 
contamination, such as the city 
of Parchment switching over to 
Kalamazoo’s water sources. 
 “There’s also even community 
systems that have discovered 
that there’s a contamination 
source, and their levels were 
higher than what they realize 
or what they thought,” Olson 
said. “And in those cases the 
city of Parchment was one such 
city; what they did was abandon 
their water source and hook 
up to the city of Kalamazoo. So 
communities have adjusted to 
these situations in various ways 
depending on how it’s surfaced.”
In spite of these adjustments, 
the lingering damage of PFAS 
ingested 
by 
humans 
and 
accumulated by the environment 
is a pressing concern.
LSA 
junior 
Luke 
McGill, 
who is studying environmental 
science, 
echoed 
the 
unease 
regarding facing the unknown.
“We 
know 
it’s 
in 
the 
environment and can get into our 
drinking water, and like you said 
it’s above EPA standards in some 
places,” McGill said. “We just 
don’t know what that’s going to 
do. So I think that’s concerning 
that it’s already in us or it already 
has the possibility to affect us.”
The 
city 
of 
Ann 
Arbor, 
however, has been proactive 
regarding the safety of its 
drinking 
water 
by 
utilizing 
granular activated carbon to 
maintain the city’s PFAS levels, 
which are currently below 10 ppt. 

NOAH K AHAN

2A — Thursday, October 17, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MADELINE HINKLEY/Daily

Noah Kahan performs in support of his latest album at the Majestic Theatre in Detroit Tuesday evening, 

KRISTINA LENN 
Daily Staff Reporter

CDC and DHHS will begin examining drinking water in Cooper Township and North Kent County

Michigan cities selected for PFAS 
exposure study, testing sites

Read more at 
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