
Stark black and white photos of the residents of Hoosick Falls, in
Rensselaer County, fill the Twitter and Facebook feeds of the PFOA
Project NY.
Each resident holds a sign announcing the results of blood tests
showing how much perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical linked to
cancer, is in their bodies.
“I’m only six ... can you ignore that???,” reads a sign held up by Corey Aldrich.
Nationwide readings average 2.08 ppb, compared with a 23.5 average in
Hoosick Falls. The average level of the toxic chemical in the blood of
2,000 Hoosick Falls residents was about 10 times that of the general
population, the state Health Department said.
Corey’s 4-year-old sister, Alyssa, holds a sign revealing a PFOA level of 117 ppb.

Some Hoosick Falls residents have filed a class action lawsuit filed
against Honeywell International and Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics,
the companies that currently own the manufacturing plants identified by
state investigators as the most likely sources of the contamination.
Department of Environmental Conservation officials recently announced
that they had reached consent orders with both companies that will
require them to initiate and pay for cleanup of several sites in and
around Hoosick Falls. But others want answers from lawmakers about when
officials knew the town’s water was unsafe and what they plan to do
about it.

Politico reported last week that state officials and others knew the
water was tainted with PFOA long before the public was told they should
stop drinking the water.
The state has overseen installation of a temporary filtration system on
the Hoosick Falls municipal water supply, and filters at homes where
private well contamination was confirmed.
One of the first photos posted on the PFOA Project NY feed was of
resident Loreen Hackett, who revealed a shocking PFOA level of 266 ppb.
“Gee ... thanks,” Hackett’s sign reads.
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