By Sharon Lerner
In Partnership with The Investigative Fund
Kristen Mello wasn’t invited to the Environmental Protection Agency’s upcoming “National Leadership Summit” on PFOA, PFOS, and other PFAS chemicals. For most of her life, Mello, a member of Westfield Residents Advocating For Themselves,
drank water contaminated with the chemicals that are going to be
discussed at the meeting. At least six compounds in this class seeped
into local drinking water from firefighting foam used at the Air
National Guard base in her hometown of Westfield, Massachusetts. Mello
and several of her immediate family members have developed some of the
health problems associated with the chemicals, including thyroid
disease, ulcerative colitis, and liver problems. While most people
in the United States have been exposed to PFAS, Westfield is one of the
growing number of communities to learn they’ve had an especially high
dose of the chemicals as the result of living near a military
installation or manufacturing site that used them.
But when Mello sent the EPA a request to attend the PFAS summit, which
will be held May 22-23 at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., the
agency said she wasn’t welcome.
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Source: The Intercept_
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