What's happening
This bill directs the state to regularly test and monitor PFOA contamination in Hoosick Falls, Hoosick, and Petersburgh residents until their blood levels are safe.
Why it matters
Ensures ongoing health monitoring for affected residents. By mandating biennial blood testing until individual PFOA levels drop below a specific threshold, the bill provides long-term tracking of health risks, which is crucial for early detection of potential PFOA-related illnesses.
Improves transparency and individual awareness. Each participant not only receives their personal test results but also a comprehensive report on local aggregate findings and recommendations, empowering residents with information to make health and lifestyle decisions.
Holds polluters accountable for cleanup costs. The state will attempt to recover all expenses for the monitoring program from responsible parties, ensuring that taxpayers aren't left to bear the financial burden of corporate pollution.
Ties program duration to public health outcomes. The biomonitoring and reporting will only cease once every participant’s PFOA level is deemed safe, ensuring state support remains in place for as long as it is needed for community safety.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Test Residents for PFOA
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Referred to health
- Referred to health
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
195
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE (Prefiled)
January 4, 2017
Introduced by Sen. MARCHIONE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Health
AN ACT authorizing and directing the commissioner of health to conduct biomonitoring on the residents of Hoosick Falls, Hoosick, and Petersburgh regarding PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) contamination; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The commissioner of health is hereby authorized and directed to implement or continue to implement a biomonitoring study in the village of Hoosick Falls, town of Hoosick and town of Petersburgh. Such study shall be conducted to document the residents' actual exposure to PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and to monitor PFOA levels of each individual in the study. Such study shall include blood samples taken from its subjects every two years. This study shall include those individuals who were a part of the biomonitoring and blood testing performed by the department of health in 2016.
§ 2. Such biomonitoring shall continue for each individual in the study until such individual's PFOA blood level is reduced to two parts per billion. Upon completion of each blood testing, a report including the number of subjects in each locality, the aggregate results of such testing, and any recommendations shall be transmitted to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the chair of the senate health committee, and the chair of the assembly health committee. Each individual in the study shall also receive a copy of the report as well as a copy of their blood test results.
§ 3. All costs associated with implementing the provisions of this act shall be borne by the state hazardous waste remedial fund as established by section 97-b of the state finance law. The commissioner of environmental conservation and the commissioner of health shall make all
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD04412-01-7
S. 195 2
reasonable efforts to recover the full amount of any funds expended from the fund pursuant to this act through litigation or cooperative agreements with responsible persons. Any and all moneys recovered or reimbursed pursuant to this section through voluntary agreements or court orders shall be deposited with the comptroller and credited to the account of such fund from which such expenditures were made. If at any time the hazardous waste remedial fund does not have sufficient monies for payment for the study, then the commissioner of health shall report this determination to the comptroller, along with the amount which will be necessary to continue the study. No more than four days after receiving such a determination the comptroller shall transfer the amount determined by the commissioner of health to be necessary from the general fund to the hazardous waste remedial fund. Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the state from receiving grants, gifts, bequests or any means of receiving federal monies for the purposes of the hazardous waste remedial fund as defined in this section and depositing them into the hazardous waste remedial fund according to law.
§ 4. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be deemed repealed on the one hundred twentieth day after the commissioner of health has submitted a report as required by section two of this act that states that all individuals receiving blood testing in the study have a PFOA blood level not exceeding two parts per billion, provided that the commissioner of health shall notify the legislative bill drafting commission upon the occurrence of the submission of such report as required by section two of this act in order that the commission may maintain an accurate and timely effective data base of the official text of the laws of the state of New York in furtherance of effectuating the provisions of section 44 of the legislative law and section 70-b of the public officers law.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act authorizing and directing the commissioner of health to conduct biomonitoring on the residents of Hoosick Falls, Hoosick, and Petersburgh regarding PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) contamination; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof
Purpose
To ensure that biomonitoring for PFOA continues in the Village of Hoosick Falls, the Town of Hoosick and the Town of Petersburgh .
Summary of provisions
Section 1 directs the Commissioner of Health to continue to implement a biomonitoring study for Hoosick Falls, Hoosick and Petersburg to include blood tests every two years.
Section 2 requires a report on the results of the biomonitoring studies every two years after each blood testing to be transmitted to the Governor, the Temporary President of the Senate, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Chair of the Senate Health Committee and the Chair of the Assembly Health Committee. Each individual tested shall receive their own blood test results as well as the report.
Section 3 provides that the costs associated with this Act shall be borne by the State Hazardous Waste Remedial Fund. The Commissioners of Environmental Conservation and Health shall make all reasonable efforts to recover the full amount of any funds expended from the fund pursuantto this section through voluntary agreements or court orders.
Section 4 states the effective date, expiration date and repeal date.
Justification
The recent discovery of water contamination caused by perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh has raised great alarm to residents of those areas, as well as, alarm across the State. These instances of contamination have been cited as the potential cause of many previously unexplained illnesses by members, workers and visitors of those communities. The illnesses include kidney and testicular cancer, pre-eclampsia, ulcerative colitis, changes in thyroid hormone and high cholesterol levels. Biomonitoring by blood sample has been offered to all people exposed to the contaminated water. Those tested received their personal results which amounted to a number indicating the level of PFOA in their bloodstream with many indicating significant elevated levels of PFOA.
This single biomonitoring measurement is but one snapshot in time. To give effective analysis, it must be repeated over time and also compared with other similar biomonitoring studies elsewhere.
Biomonitoring does not give information as to how long a substance has been in the body or how it got there, but it serves as a guide for further research to: reinforce regulatory actions by providing actual data about which chemicals get into people at what levels; improve exposure assessments; establish baselines to reference ranges; facilitate people's right to know what chemicals are in their bodies; establish priorities for tackling environmental health-related problems and identify health disparities. (Toxipedia)
In Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, continued biomonitoring will help to make sense of what the high levels of PFOA in the bloodstream means; it will help to make more certain what harm human exposure to PFOA causes. Continued biomonitoring will strengthen the research on PFOA and in turn help those that have been afflicted not just in Hoosick Falls and Petersburgh, but throughout New York State.
Legislative history
This is a new bill.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.