PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Enrollment in a federal health study into exposure from toxic chemicals known as PFAS will close at end of December in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Federal health officials estimated tens of thousands of people were exposed to compounds for decades at the former Pease Air Force Base.
The chemicals are in fighting foam that leached into the drinking water supply at the center of the New Hampshire PFAS investigation.
The Pease Health Study is being conducted by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Investigators need 1,000 adults and 350 children, ages four to 17, who drank water at the base between 2004 and 2014 to participate. But only a little more than 60 percent of adults, and 26 percent of children have signed up.
If anyone would like more information on how to enroll in the study (which closes Dec. 31), click here.
For Andrea Amico, nagging questions about her family's health never leave her mind.
"Not knowing the long-term health effects is really worrisome to me," Amico said.
Back in 2014, she discovered that her husband, who worked at the Pease Tradeport, as well as two of her children in daycare, drank water laced with PFAS chemicals.
Studies have linked exposure to organ cancers, kidney issues, and developmental delays. Amico and other moms fought to get a federal study to examine long-term health effects.
"Not only for our community but for the growing number of counties across the country also facing this issue," Amico said.
The study is not being conducted as a walk-in clinic. Patients need to call and set up their blood screenings. Children under 18 will undergo neurobehavioral assessments. Parents and patients need to set aside about an hour for paperwork.
Celeste Ledoux's three children Zach, Rory, and Ranger, were exposed to the PFAS while attending daycare at Pease between 2001 and 2011. In the 5th grade, Ranger was diagnosed with a high-grade brain tumor. He underwent radiation and chemotherapy, and the cancer is in remission. While there is a family history of brain cancer, all three of her children participated in the study.
Ledoux also made a video encouraging other families to do their part to help determine the science about potential health problems from PFAS exposure.
"Not just cancers, but any of the other childhood diseases that we see. What else could that water be triggering?" Ledoux said.
Data collected from patients in the Pease community will be combined with findings from seven other test sites in military communities across the country.
The final results of the study are expected to be released within the next five years.