[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: "DOD is spending millions, getting rid of toxic foam by burning it near where people live"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

DOD is spending millions, getting rid of toxic foam by burning it near where people live

by JOCE STERMAN, ALEX BRAUER and ANDREA NEJMAN
Sinclair Broadcast Group
September 10,  2020

COHOES, N.Y. - The military stopped using firefighting foam that contains toxic PFAS chemicals because of documented health risks. To get rid of its massive stockpile, Spotlight on America discovered the Department of Defense is spending millions of taxpayer dollars, burning the toxic foam in residential areas. 

Joe Ritchie lives across the railroad tracks from a hazardous waste incinerator in Cohoes, New York, so he's familiar with the smell of burning materials. But in the last couple of years, he noticed something different. "If they're burning something new, we see it, smell it, feel it," Ritchie told us. Earlier this year, Ritchie and others learned the incinerator had been burning millions of gallons of firefighting foam known as AFFF, laced with a set of PFAS chemicals. Those chemicals, studies show, are linked to cancer and other health problems. And Cohoes residents like Ritchie say it's not acceptable to burn them where people live.

…

For the entire story, see
https://wjla.com/news/spotlight-on-america/dod-is-spending-millions-getting-rid-of-toxic-foam-by-burning-it-near-where-people-live

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org





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