Cancer-linked chemicals found at Cocoa Beach golf course
Florida citizens residing near Satellite Beach and Cocoa Beach may have been exposed to toxic chemicals. A new study showed that not only were three test wells in Satellite Beach contaminated by toxins such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), but the same compounds were found in Cocoa Beach groundwater. And they were found at levels as much as six times higher than in neighboring Satellite Beach.
Cocoa Beach’s City Manager Jim McKnight found the results of the study “surprising”, but it’s not believed any drinking water was contaminated. Instead the water has been used for irrigation purposes at local golf courses. PFOS and PFOA were primarily used in fire extinguishing foams, but they’ve also been used “in pesticides, Teflon coating, and a litany of consumer and industrial products.”
A cancer survivor and oncologist from Jacksonville, Florida was the driving force behind the study. Julie Greenwalt wondered if “local exposures could have contributed to her illness” as well as the other residents in the area that suffered from cancer. The concern of the exposure to the chemicals varies from experts to citizens though, as the EPA believes 70 parts per trillion is the amount at which the chemicals become dangerous, and yet the state of Minnesota “set drinking and groundwater levels at 35 parts per trillion for PFOA and 27 parts per trillion for PFOS.”
More studies of course need to be conducted, but what’s clear is that any contamination level at these and other beaches and golf courses should be highly scrutinized.
To read the full story by Florida Today, click here: https://on.flatoday.com/2M2ZnFP
Cocoa Beach’s groundwater test report can be found by following this link: https://bit.ly/2Mh3pHx