PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP. Mich. (WOOD) — The blood of residents who live near Wolverine Worldwide’s old dump in Belmont contains high levels of PFAS, a likely carcinogen, Target 8 has learned.
Tests found 5 million parts per trillion in the blood of Sandy Wynn-Stelt, who has lived directly across the street from the Rockford-based shoemaker’s House Street dump for 24 years.
Tests for PFAS in her property’s well found 38,000 parts per trillion, higher than any other well in the area. The level is 542 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory level for drinking water.
The blood of a 20-month-old boy who also lives near the old dump was found to contain 484,000 parts per trillion of PFAS, his father Seth McNaughton told Target 8. That’s nearly as high as the level of PFAS in the groundwater at Wolverine’s former tannery site in Rockford, which came in at 490,000 parts per trillion.
Seth McNaughton, whose family lives across US-131 from the House Street dump, told Target 8 that even his doctor was shocked by the amount of PFAS in Jack’s blood.
It’s too soon to say what this could mean for Jack, but his parents told Target 8 they’re worried about his future.
The blood tests for Wynn-Stelt and Jack were paid for by Varnum Law, the firm representing many northern Kent County homeowners dealing with PFAS in their wells.
The PFAS, once found in the Scotchgard that Wolverine used to treat shoes, is spreading from the old dump where the company buried sludge until 1970.
A study on PFAS in West Virginia found probable links to a half-dozen illnesses, including some forms of cancer. PFAS is known to accumulate in humans as they drink contaminated water or use other products with the chemical. It takes years for it to leave the body.
The Wolverine crisis has grown to cover more homes than any of the nearly 30 known PFAS sites in Michigan, the state has said. So far in Kent County, wells at 76 homes have tested over the EPA’s advisory level of 70 parts per trillion for PFAS.
The state of Michigan set its PFAS standard for drinking water to align with the EPA advisory limit Tuesday. It did not previously have a standard.
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