PFAS meeting June 25 and water quality news

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Greetings!

We hope you will take some time out to enjoy our local lands and waters this summer. Meanwhile, some timely information has come across our desks on important water quality meetings and news.

EPA will hold a community engagement session in Exeter, NH - June 25 on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the first meeting of its kind in the nation following the EPA summit on the same topic in May 2018.

Updated information on arsenic in our food and water is now available. Many of us know about the higher than normal naturally occurring arsenic in bedrock drinking water wells in the northeast, but did you know about the higher than normal levels in rice, especially brown rice? The Dartmouth College Toxic Metals Research Center developed an informational website called Arsenic and You - details and a link are provided below.

Lastly, plastics have been washing up on our shores from the recent storms and from the overall increase in single use plastics, but do you know how severe the problem is in Asia and in our oceans? We provide a link to a recent National Geographic series on this topic and provide tips we can all follow for reducing plastic waste.

PFAS Community Engagement Session: June 25-26, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in an effort to address PFAS contamination, will hold its first in the nation regional community engagement listening session on Monday, June 25 from 4:30 pm to 10:00 pm and a working session on Tuesday, June 26, 8:00 am to 3:00 pm at Exeter High School . Register here and choose your preferred time slot if you'd like to speak.

DID YOU KNOW? Rice cakes, rice puffs and other gluten-free foods and snacks for both children and adults can contain high levels of arsenic.

SHOULD YOU BE CONCERNED ABOUT ARSENIC IN YOUR FOOD?

Studies have shown that those who eat a lot of rice as part of their daily diet, and those eating gluten-free foods, may have higher exposure to arsenic because many gluten-free products use rice flour or are otherwise rice-based. Similarly, some baby foods are rice-based and can have higher levels of arsenic. The Dartmouth College Toxic Metals Superfund Research Program has developed data that confirms that dissolved arsenic is taken up by the rice plant much more easily than by other grains. Long term exposure to inorganic arsenic can lead to certain types of cancer.

Learn more about arsenic in water and food at Dartmouth's website: www.ArsenicandYou.org .

YOU CAN HELP TURN THE TIDE ON PLASTIC , from National Geographic

Six Things You Can Do To Reduce the Impact of Plastic in Our Oceans (plus one more)

1. Give up plastic bags

2. Skip single use plastic straws

3. Pass up plastic bottles

4. Avoid plastic packaging

5. Recycle what you can

6. Don’t litter, and

... If you see plastic waste, pick it up and recycle or dispose of it properly.

Read full article here .

A family walks along a garbage-strewn beach in Mumbai, India. Photo by V. Prakash, REUTERS/CORBIS - National Geographic

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Truslow Resource Consulting | (603)766-6670 | danna@TruslowRC.com | www.TruslowRC.com