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Sean Oshima has some of his happiest memories working at Songbird Farm in Union City for two summers. Five years later, in 2022, organic farms discovered PFAS contamination in their soil and water.
Oshima is concerned that he has been exposed to the virus, but he is hesitant to have his blood tested for the presence of “forever chemicals” linked to diseases such as kidney and testicular cancer. At the urging of his mother and rancher, he finally did so in December.
“At first I thought, ‘Maybe I’m influenced,'” said Oshima, a 31-year-old Portland musician. “But it’s okay not to know.”
This fall, a state program sent nearly 700 letters to people whose oil wells tested high for PFAS, encouraging them to get tested and offering state help to pay for the tests. But the effort got off to a slow start, with the state collecting only 164 positive test results as of mid-February, which is likely a fraction of those exposed to high PFAS levels.
Reluctance to get tested and other barriers, such as a lack of insurance, mean that even after a statewide push aimed at tracking health conditions related to exposure and finding new hotspots of contamination, few Mainers are getting tested.
“Some people are really interested in getting tested,” said Dr. Rachel Criswell, a family physician and PFAS health expert at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan. “Some people will say, ‘I don’t want to know if something is going to kill me. There’s nothing I can do about it. The damage has been done,’ that kind of thing.”
Maine officials have determined that more than 90 farms have unsafe levels of PFAS. In 2022, lawmakers approved a $60 million PFAS fund to help farmers and others whose land has been affected by the spread of sewage sludge, a practice that began in the 1980s and inadvertently caused widespread pollution and is now banned.
Most of Criswell’s patients come from central Maine, where exposure to PFAS through sludge is more common than in other parts of the state. In her practice, only about 10% of high-risk people choose to get tested, she said.
Blood is being drawn at Quest Diagnostics Patient Services. Maine regulators recently contracted the company to draw blood for PFAS testing at its centers in Bangor, Topsham and Presque Isle. Photo courtesy of Quest Diagnostics.
Criswell said PFAS exposure is important information for future treatment, similar to understanding genetics or smoking history. If someone is exposed, she may recommend annual screenings for cholesterol, thyroid problems, or kidney cancer.
Others want to get tested but encounter barriers. Lisa Toles, 61, a migrant farmworker who has worked on contaminated farms and greenhouses in central Maine for 20 years, received one of the emails and immediately wanted to get tested.
“I was completely shocked by the letter I received. No one told me there was PFAS in the area where I work,” she said. “I picked and planted some stuff and moved old sludge piles by hand, which had old toilet paper in them. No one told us that this was a chemical pile forever.”
But participating in the program requires health insurance or the signature of a doctor authorizing the blood draw.
Toles doesn’t have insurance and said she can’t afford to see a doctor, so she keeps waiting. She said her work has been slowed as farms have closed or suspended operations after learning their fields were contaminated with PFAS. She had just gotten a job at a call center and had insurance for the first time in a decade.
“I want to know what my numbers are and see what I need to do proactively to monitor my health,” she said, planning to get tested when her coverage goes into effect in a month.
As of mid-February, nearly 30% of blood test results reported to the CDC were considered high. The letters promoting state-assisted testing come months after the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention began tracking blood tests that tested positive for PFAS, whether or not they came from a state-funded program.
Insurers appear to be covering more of the testing costs than state officials initially expected. The state allocated $1.3 million for the blood testing but has so far received only a bill of more than $1,300.
Insurance is one reason state officials can’t track the total number of people getting blood tests. PFAS Fund Director Beth Valentine said the fund would not have received an invoice if the plan had covered the entire test. The Maine CDC does not collect data on people who test negative.
Sean Oshima was exposed to PFAS while working at Unity’s Songbird Farm. Initially hesitant about his PFAS levels, he later had two PFAS blood tests and treatments that lowered his PFAS levels and urged others to get tested as well. Photo courtesy of Sean Oshima.
Valentine said the state has recently made efforts to expand testing. In January, pre-approved patients can get tested at the annual Agricultural Fair in Augusta.
The PFAS fund is also updating testing requirements to cover more types of farm workers and extending the period during which people can request testing.
Criswell also believes people who initially test high take advantage of the state program when seeking follow-up testing.
Although Oshima initially objected, he is now urging others to find out whether they have been exposed. After he tested positive in December, his doctor prescribed an old cholesterol-lowering drug called cholestyramine.
After three months of taking the drug, his PFAS levels dropped by 70%, below the high detection threshold.
“While there are still a lot of question marks, it feels good to do something about it,” Oshima said.
Support for this story was provided by the Unity Foundation, a fund from the Maine Community Foundation, and donations from BDN readers.