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A panel of experts has been put together to assess the health and environmental risks posed by a cancer-linked chemical discovered in Jersey water and some islanders' blood. Express spoke to its Chair about how it will operate...
Dr Steve Hajioff, who is a UK-based retired director of public health, will lead a three-member ‘PFAS Scientific Advisory Panel’ which will make recommendations to the Government on how it should deal with the family of carbon-based compounds.
PFAS is a class of about 15,000 chemicals often used to make products resistant to water, stains and heat.
They been linked at low levels of exposure to cancer, thyroid disease, kidney dysfunction, birth defects, autoimmune disease and other serious health problems.
They have been called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally degrade in the environment.
One PFAS, called PFOS, was an ingredient of firefighting foam sprayed at the Airport, when then entered the water course.
Several islanders living in water catchments flowing down from the Airport believe their health has suffered by ingesting water containing PFAS.
Around 80 volunteered to take part in a Government-funded blood-testing programme last year.
It found that every one of them had a PFAS in their blood, with 80% having at least one type at a high concentration.
Last week, these residents were invited to meet the Advisory Panel before it starts its work.
The panel, which will operate over nine months and possibly longer, is made up of:
Dr Hajioff as a non-PFAS-expert chair,
Dr Tony Fletcher, who is an expert on PFAS and its impact on health, and
Professor Ian Cousins, who is an expert on PFAS and its impact on the environment.
The panel will publish a series of reports:
a review of therapeutic phlebotomy, which is having blood removed to reduce PFAS concentrations,
assessing the evidence of impact of PFAS exposure on health, and an assessment of clinical interventions,
a review of how islanders’ blood should be tested and re-tested,
a review of environmental management, and
an update report, which will include any new literary evidence
Giving his first interview to Express, Dr Hajioff said “I am not an expert on PFAS, although I might be close to one at the end of this process.
“However, I have made the deliberate choice to work with people who are experts, and to be able to ask the ‘daft’ questions. By not being an expert, I can challenge them in a way that I couldn’t if I knew more about the topic.”
He added: “We are going to look at the evidence and literature, as well as the lived experience of islanders who have PFAS in their body and are concerned by the potential health effects. And we will also speak to experts by training and profession.
“We have structured a programme around that so we can try to synthesise all of that together and get to a place of ‘the best guess’ as I don’t think we’re going to have definitive answers to anything.”
“There have been a few exercises elsewhere," Dr Hajioff said. "However, I think the approach which has been taken here is a refreshing one because our work and process is going to be public. The public will be able to watch and listen into our meetings, and also comment and question via email.
“I haven’t seen that approach elsewhere. There has been work done in Sweden, and both of our permanent panellists have been involved in that country.
“Work has been done in Australia and a variety of other places. The experts from those places are the people we are going to be talking to and asking to advise us, over and above what we can find in the scientific literature.
“We will be speaking to people who have actually done a healthcare intervention, an environment clean-up or a monitoring programme. These are people who have actually assessed the risk in a population because they have assessed thousands of people over many years.
“They can give us an additional level of scholarship over and above what we can find in the public literature.”
“The lived experience of people is just as important as the science," Dr Hajioff said. "I am a doctor – I have a theoretical idea of what a disease does, but I have no idea what it is like to live with it.
Pictured: Some of the products which have or had PFAS in them.
“So, I could make some assumptions that are completely off beam because it wouldn’t work for the person who has that disease, such as recommending exercise to someone who couldn’t take three steps without getting chest pain.
“Their lived experience is vital in triangulating what we get from expert scientists.
“My job as a non-expert chair is to make the process fair and honest, scientifically robust and to translate science-speak into person-speak.”
“I would be really happy if we end up with a report that all stakeholders, whatever their vested interest, accept was produced honestly and through an honest process, and is an accurate assessment of what the evidence currently is. For me, I would go home really happy.
“I recognise that there is a likelihood that some people might not accept what we say, but if they accept that what we did was done right, then that is also ok.
“We have to recognise that being exposed to something harmful - or you think is harmful - has an effect of people’s psychological and emotional wellbeing. And how much more can that be if they think they may have exposed a vulnerable member of their family to it.
“So, actually providing reassurance and support is, to my mind, as important a part of my function as having the scientific process.”
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