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Michigan attends national summit on PFAs, calls for more research on human impacts

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The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality met Tuesday with members of the EPA at a national summit focused on PFAs, a chemical contaminant found at sites around the state.

Representatives from Michigan called for more research into the impacts of PFAs on human health and how PFAs move through the ecosystem and food chain.

Scott Dean is a DEQ Spokesman. He said the state would also like to see updated national standards.

“We’d really like to have some regulatory certainty from Washington so we can all have a common set of standards and practices so we can move forward in cooperation to address this emerging contaminant. “

The summit comes after news that the EPA may have delayed the release of a study which showed PFAs have adverse impacts on human health at levels much lower than previously thought.

Dean said the state won’t wait for that study.

“The right thing to do here in Michigan is not to wait, but to go out and start aggressively looking for these sites.”

Dean said the state is in the process of launching a 1.7 million dollar survey looking for PFAs in drinking water across the state.