Report: Military’s flawed oversight of toxic chemicals increased risks to personnel, public

The U.S. Defense Department responded too slowly to reduce the dangers of cancer-causing chemicals used in firefighting foam, despite knowing the health hazards for decades, and then failed to put in place adequate measures to protect personnel, the environment and communities near military bases, says a newly released inspector general’s report.

The military issued an alert in 2011 describing the risks posed by PFAS — a set of long-lasting chemicals — to people and the environment, but this alert did not compel officials to take action or phase out the harmful substances, the report says, resulting in little being done until 2016.

In New Mexico, state regulators have blamed lack of federal oversight for PFAS contaminating groundwater around the Cannon and Holloman Air Force bases, located in Clovis and Alamogordo, respectively.