Report: PFCs unlikely to harm health

Talk about it

The Minnesota Department of Health says drinking east metro water contaminated with 3M-manufactured perfluorochemicals is unlikely to cause adverse health conditions in humans.

PFCs were released into groundwater from 3M disposal sites in Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Lake Elmo and Woodbury, contaminating municipal and private drinking wells.

In a report released Tuesday, the health department concluded that drinking water from public or private wells that contain PFCs is not expected to harm people’s health. The study compared elevated levels of the chemical in human blood with existing animal studies.

In the study, the health department admitted it didn’t know whether drinking or breathing PFCs in the past had harmed people’s health, or whether levels had been higher than they are today.

The levels of PFCs found in Cottage Grove’s municipal water system are below health-based values that the health department set in 2008. Nearly 30 homes on private wells in the River Acres and Langdon neighborhoods still have levels above the safe maximum established by state health officials, however. Those homes continue to use carbon filtering systems on their homes or receive bottled water.

Tags: area news, cottage grove, daily updates, news, health, business