Environmental Health Professor Provides Guidance on PFAS Testing and Health Outcomes

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 26, 2021) – Professor Erin M. Bell, as part of an ad hoc committee appointed by the National Academies, is evaluating current evidence regarding human health effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in an effort to bridge the gap between community needs and physician response.

PFAS are man-made chemicals that can be found in food, household products, the workplace, and drinking water. Growing evidence shows that PFAS exposure can lead to adverse health effects. However, when individuals or communities learn that they have been exposed, there isn’t a step-by-step, one-fits-all approach to deal with exposure.

Individuals and communities may feel uncertain on how to move forward. Clinicians may be unequipped to treat them effectively. Some doctors may lack training in environmental health or epidemiology—and those who are trained often do not have familiarity on preventative medicine for long term exposures. Preventative screening to find problems due to exposure may be costly, and doctors may not have the in-depth understanding of environmental health to know which tests to run. This can be frustrating for all involved.

Bell, along with her committee colleagues, will provide guidance on PFAS testing and health outcomes with the goal of providing information to inform how communities and individuals exposed to PFAS could be best served by clinicians. These recommendations will help form the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (CDC/ATSDR) principles and guidance on PFAS.

Over the last few months, the committee has been hosting town halls to hear from communities with PFAS exposure.

“It’s important for us to hear from communities who have experienced contamination not only about what they want or need from clinicians, but what questions or frustrations they might have with regards to their PFAS exposure,” says Bell. “We will also be hearing from clinicians and other researchers to help us frame our recommendations and conclusions.”

Providing guidance on how to test, who to test, what to test for, risks of testing and more will assist residents in these communities with the information needs to work with their clinicians. In addition, the committee’s work will develop principles clinicians can use to advise patients on ways to reduce their exposure.

Loreen Hackett, a Hoosick Falls resident and community liaison advising the PFAS National Academies committee, has firsthand experience with the fear, anger, and confusion that communities exposed to PFAS experience. After her community received notice of contamination and their blood test levels, she was shocked at the lack of guidance.

“The vast majority of physicians in our area, regardless of specialty, were just clueless, and that's if they even knew what PFAS were, which was even more unbelievable as it was all over the news for a long time,” says Hackett. “Our experiences here in Hoosick Falls alone, wherein after we received severely elevated blood level results, everyone ran to doctors and received little to no direction, prove the dire and vital need for physician guidance on PFAS health effects, particularly in known affected communities. It should be alarming that many of us know more than the doctors, and inversely try to educate them. As more and more families wake up to the devastating news of PFAS contamination in their area, which is almost weekly, the work of the National Academies committee is more crucial than ever.”

Work from the National Academies PFAS committee will be used to inform how communities and individuals exposed to PFAS could be best served by clinicians.

“I am honored to be a part of such critical work alongside colleagues from across the US,” says Bell.