"Final Federal MCHM Study Leaves Same Questions Unanswered"

"Federal government scientists on Friday released the final update of their study of Crude MCHM, without answering several important questions about the potential health effects of the January 2014 chemical spill that contaminated the drinking water supply for hundreds of thousands of residents in Charleston and surrounding communities of the Kanawha Valley.

Overall, the work of the National Toxicology Program at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found some potential for negative health impacts related to exposure to chemicals from the spill, but said that those effects were only found to occur at significantly higher doses than residents would have had in their water under the health advisory set up following the Freedom Industries spill.

In a seven-page final report released late Friday, the program said that “most of the spilled chemicals had no effects in the studies that were performed.” And when the chemicals did produce effects, those effects occurred “at dose levels that were considerably higher” than the government’s 1-part-per-million level used by the Tomblin administration after the spill."

Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette-Mail July 8, 2016.