[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: "16 cancer cases in one family, " Colorado Springs, CO

[Lenny Siegel]

16 cancer cases in one family: Base water contamination fight moves to Congress

By Tara Copp    
Military Times
March 4, 2019

Former Army reservist Spc. Mark Favors comes from a military family who has lived for generations near Colorado Springs’ Air Force and Army installations.

It’s taken a severe toll, he said.

Favors, 50, can count at least 16 relatives from the area who have been diagnosed with cancer; 10 have died. Six of those relatives have died since 2012, including his father at age 69 and two cousins, ages 38 and 54.

“In my family alone, we have had five kidney cancer deaths,” Favors said. “And those people only lived in the contaminated area.”

Many of Favors’ relatives lived near Peterson Air Force Base, where scores of both on-base and off base water sources have tested significantly above the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended exposure of 70 parts per trillion of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFAS) or perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The compounds were part of the military’s firefighting foam until just last year. The compounds have been linked to cancers and developmental delays for fetuses and infants.

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/03/04/16-cancer-cases-in-one-family-base-water-contamination-fight-moves-to-congress/

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