Two more months of Newburgh blood testing

NEWBURGH – At least two more months of voluntary blood testing in and around the City of Newburgh are being scheduled.
Seven days in November were set aside by the state Health Department to draw blood from people who live and work in the greater Newburgh area. The purpose is to determine if anyone has effects of the carcinogenic chemical PFOS that was discovered months ago in Newburgh’s drinking water supply in Washington Lake.
City Councilman Torrance Harvey termed “awesome,” the news of more testing dates.
“I have been getting reports that they have been getting far more than they had anticipated who were signing up to register for the free blood testing in the City of Newburgh and I even believe they opened things up to the neighboring towns like the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor, and there was such a high demand that they didn’t have enough funding and weren’t prepared to service the amount of people who signed up for free blood testing,” Harvey said.
Since it was discovered, the spigot was turned off and the New York City Catskill Aqueduct has been the source of water for the City of Newburgh.
Because of the large volume of people who showed up to have blood drawn in November, nine more days were established in December and others will be set for January.
The dates in December are 3, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 19 and 20. Testing will
be conducted at the Cornerstone Family Healthcare headquarters at 147
Lake Street in Newburgh.
Health Department spokesman J.P. O’Hara said dates for additional
blooding testing in January have yet to be announced.  He said results
of the individual tests have not come back from the lab.