Mindi Messmer of Rye is a scientist, former NH House Representative and founder of New Hampshire Safe Water Alliance. Nancy Murphy is a retired registered nurse, current NH House Representative from Merrimack, and board member of New Hampshire Safe Water Alliance.

On March 21, the New Hampshire Supreme Court gave polluters like Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics in Merrimack, the green light to keep polluting our state and making residents sick.

But, unlike 16 other states, the Court has chosen not to protect the people who have decades of past and ongoing exposure to “forever chemicals” or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), from Saint-Gobain’s industrial emissions.

There are more than 12,000 or as many as 21 million PFAS chemicals used in industrial and consumer products ranging from fast food wrappers to cosmetics to chemical protective gear and radar domes.

Saint Gobain’s chemicals are odorless, tasteless, and colorless so for decades residents had no idea they were drinking dangerous levels of PFAS chemicals. Southern New Hampshire residents deserve to have diagnostic testing at the polluter’s expense, before they have a confirmed cancer diagnosis, given the well-known increased risk of cancer and other negative health outcomes related to PFAS exposure.

In 2022, the NH Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) concluded that people in Merrimack have significantly higher rates of kidney cancer than the rest of the state (DHHS, 2022). Dr. Linda Birnbaum, former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), says the data is very clear that PFAS exposure causes kidney cancer and other health problems, and those problems worsen with increases in the levels of PFAS chemicals in the blood. Blood levels of PFAS in Merrimack people are almost three times the U.S. national average (Messmer, et al., 2022).

Early detection is key because when cancer is detected early the chance of survival is better, and treatment is often less invasive and less costly than if cancer becomes more advanced and/or spreads to other parts of the body.

According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the five-year survival rate for cancer that’s caught early is 99%, compared to only 14% for cancer that’s not caught until it’s spread to other parts of the body. In addition, prostate cancer has a 100% one-year survival rate if caught in stages 1, 2, or 3, but a much lower survival rate if detected at stage 4.

But most doctors are not even aware of these chemicals and the negative health effects of exposure. Sometimes blood tests or other laboratory tests can detect kidney cancer before someone recognizes the symptoms (American Cancer Society, 2023). For those who don’t have insurance coverage or some who don’t have health insurance at all, the out-of-pocket costs are high, making early detection and treatment out of reach for most people.

In the March Brown v. Saint-Gobain Supreme Court decision, only three of the five judges, including the chief justice who was the former attorney general, voted on this critical decision. Two of the five judges recused themselves from the decision, but the Court did not replace the recused judges with alternates. It’s not likely that any other state would fail to seat alternate judges on such an important decision that is likely to impact the lives of every New Hampshire citizen.

Justice MacDonald’s Supreme Court decision echoed Governor Sununu’s 2020 veto message where he said that passing HB 1375 would “open the floodgates” to new claims if citizens didn’t have “proof of injury.” Rather than protect industry, our elected officials and courts should protect citizens from harm, especially when New Hampshire has the highest rate of pediatric cancer in the nation.

In June of 2022, after decades of inaction, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said there is no safe level of exposure to two of the PFAS chemicals, something scientists have been saying for years.

Regulation and change take a long time, so we must advocate for our own and our family’s health.

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