PFC Levels in Blood of Rastatt and Middle Baden Residents to be Examined for the Final Time
Three years after the last PFC blood control examination in Rastatt and Middle Baden, the State Health Office, together with the Rastatt Public Health Office, is launching the third and probably final round of examinations. The blood of selected citizens will be examined to determine whether the concentration of the pollutant has continued to decrease.
„Even the second round of examinations in 2020 showed that PFC blood concentrations have significantly decreased. We now want to confirm this finding. Therefore, it is important for us to obtain independent and scientifically sound results,“ said Health Minister Manne Lucha on June 28, 2023 in Stuttgart.
After the contamination of agricultural soils with per- and polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS or PFC) in the Rastatt and Baden-Baden area became known, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Health commissioned a study to investigate the concentrations of these substances in the population’s blood. These chemicals are particularly persistent and can cause health impairments in humans. Since 2018, the State Health Office has been investigating whether the concentration of PFC in the blood of the local population has decreased after the contamination of the drinking water has been eliminated.
Participants receive invitations from the Public Health Office
People who have already participated in previous studies will now be invited to participate in the third round of examinations, as well as additional randomly selected individuals who fall into the following three groups based on their exposure profile:
- People who consumed drinking water from the Vorderes Murgtal supply network before 2014.
- People living in areas with contaminated soil and/or contaminated groundwater.
- People from areas without evidence of PFC in the soil or groundwater. This group serves as a control group and represents the average population without contamination.
The selection of new participants is based on the residents‘ registration registers of the respective municipalities using the random principle. The examination includes answering a questionnaire and providing a blood sample. „I hope that many of the people who are invited will actually participate in the study,“ said Health Minister Manne Lucha. „Only in this way can we obtain meaningful results.“
PFC blood concentrations in the most heavily polluted group have decreased
The second round of examinations in 2020 showed that, after the contamination through the drinking water had been stopped, the PFC blood concentrations of the most heavily polluted group, which had consumed contaminated drinking water, had significantly decreased. This finding will now be confirmed by the third round of examinations.
The anonymized results will be published as a final report on the Ministry of Health’s website, as was the case with the previous rounds of examinations.
The results of the first two rounds of examinations can be found in the following reports:
- Results of the 2018 PFC blood control examination in the Rastatt district (PDF)
- Results of the 2020 PFC blood control examination in the Rastatt district (PDF)
Answers to frequently asked questions about PFC and the blood control examination in the Rastatt district can be found in the following FAQ document by the Ministry of Social Affairs (PDF).
