ALBANY – The State Health Department and SUNY Albany’s School of Public Health have been awarded a joint $1 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry to support a health study of exposures of residents living in Newburgh and Hoosick Falls where the drinking water has been contaminated with PFAS.
The funding is the first year of a five-year project involving only seven sites nationally.
Newburgh City Manager Joseph Donat said the grant is welcome news.
“I think this is going to continue the studies that have already been done related to the blood contamination that comes from the water,” Donat said. “It’s welcome news for the city and we continue to look forward to working with the state and the many partners involved on resolving this very serious issue and providing our residents with a long-term, safe, water source.”
The national multi-site study will recruit 2,000 children ages four to 17 and 6,000 adults ages 18 and older who were exposed to PFAS-contaminated drinking water. New York will recruit 1,000 adults and 300 children from the Newburgh and Hoosick areas impacted by legacy industrial sources and firefighting foams used by the military and others.
The US EPA, meanwhile, announced the state’s Center for Environmental Health and Wadsworth Center Laboratories are receiving some $900,000 over three years to develop a comprehensive database of PFAS found near landfills in the state.
