ALBANY – State Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson (D, Newburgh) has called on the State Department of Health and the School of Public Health at the University of Albany – in their new, federally funding study on PFAS exposure – to prioritize re-testing Newburgh residents and other New Yorkers whose PFAS levels have previously been tested.
“Since many City of Newburgh residents – myself included – have already had their PFAS levels tested, this study offers a rare opportunity to measure whether or not residents’ elevated levels have decreased since they were originally tested in 2016 or 2017.”
Newburgh stopped using drinking water from the PFAS-contaminated Washington Lake reservoir in May 2016. The lake became contaminated by the New York Air National Guard’s use of firefighting foam containing PFAS chemicals at its Stewart Airport base.
The $1 million grant has been jointly awarded to the State Health Department and the University of Albany School of Public Health to fund the first year of a five-year project from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry.
