22 Jun 2018

Toxic foam: US makes hidden report public

From Morning Report, 8:48 am on 22 June 2018

A study that American officials fought to keep hidden has been made public, and it shows current levels set for firefighting foam chemicals found in water supplies may be way too high. US government officials had dubbed the draft report from the US Centers for Disease Control a 'public relations nightmare', but was forced to publish it yesterday. It says the chemicals, in a group known as P-FASS, could be a threat to human health at levels 7 to 10 times lower than the current guidelines used in the US, and in New Zealand. New Hampshire state lawmaker Mindi Messmer, an enviromental scientist who's now running for Congress on a clean-water platform, told RNZ reporter Phil Pennington the New Zealand levels are far too high.