PFAS Multi-Site Health Study

Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of compounds commonly known as PFAS, has been associated with a host of suspected health impacts. The Agency of Toxic Substances and Disease Registry sought proposals from research entities across the country to study the relationship between PFAS contaminants in drinking water and suspected human health impacts, such as immunological, metabolic, and reproductive effects, and neurobehavioral outcomes in children. Learning more about the links between PFAS exposure and disease will help inform policies to protect public health.

As a subcontractor to the Silent Spring Institute, ERG has been supporting one of seven study teams selected to pursue this research agenda. In collaboration with the Silent Sprint Institute and Harvard School of Public Health, ERG directed data collection activities for the “Massachusetts PFAS and Your Health Study”—a five-year health study focusing on two communities in Eastern Massachusetts (Hyannis on Cape Cod and the town of Ayer) where public drinking water supplies have been contaminated by PFAS. ERG set up and staffed study offices in these communities and supported all elements of data collection, including participant recruiting and enrollment, body measurements, biospecimen (blood and urine) collection for testing of PFAS and markers of disease, coordination with analytical laboratories, questionnaire administration, neurobehavioral testing, educational/medical record abstraction, and results report back. ERG’s team continues to provide data analysis support to help answer research questions, as well as support for developing multiple manuscripts to document the study findings.