Several Northeastern state governments are feverishly working to find and clean up two emerging chemicals considered toxic that have contaminated water and soil around the country, but toxicologists say states are missing hundreds more that are related with unknown health risks.
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont are among the states systematically looking at hazardous waste sites, fire departments, and water supplies to determine locations where polyfluorinated and perfluorinated compounds—also known as PFAS chemicals—have concentrated at toxic levels. But with states’ limited resources and unanswered questions about health risks and remediation, the contaminants could be going unchecked in drinking water, soil, ...