Category: Uncategorized

Wolverine Worldwide will soon begin sampling residential wells for PFOA and PFOS in an area newly-established by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and located approximately 1,500 feet on either side of the Rogue River, running from our former Tannery south to the Grand River.  Wolverine and its environmental engineers, Rose & Westra/GZA, began notifying homeowners on December 19, 2017, and sampling is expected to begin in early January.  Homeowners are being provided with bottled water while waiting for their results, which we expect to be available within four weeks after sampling.

We will continue to keep the community updated about this issue through our blog at WeAreWolverine.com, and will post a map of this study area on our Maps section when one becomes available.

Wolverine Worldwide would like to welcome Erin Brockovich to our hometown. We know how deeply you care about environmental issues, especially when it comes to water quality, and how they impact health and quality of life.

We know and respect your work in California as well as in many other places across the country and we agree with some statements you have made in the past about the pervasiveness of PFOA and PFOS, two of the family of compounds known as per- and polyflouroalkyl substances (PFAS), due to the vast array of products they have been used in for many decades.

While we are familiar with you, we also hope you take the time to learn about the work we’ve been doing for more than a year to restore the community’s faith in its water.  In case your national team of law firms – which includes Miller Law Firm, Robbins Geller Rudoman & Dowd LLP, and Weitz & Luxenberg P.C. – didn’t brief you, here are some of the facts:

We’ve been working closely with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) on this issue since last year, when we became aware of the possible presence of PFOA and PFOS in groundwater at our former Tannery location.

We also have been working collaboratively with the Kent County Health Department, Plainfield Township, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the state’s recently formed Michigan PFAS Action Response Team.

We have been working aggressively to respond to concerns about PFOA and PFOS even though human health effects from exposure to these chemicals are unknown, and there is no human study that has been conducted that proves exposure of an individual to any PFAS, including PFOA or PFOS, causes any illness. For more information, see: https://wearewolverine.com/2017/11/20/facts-about-pfas/

We, along with regulators and scientists, are still learning about these chemicals, which were used in a wide range of products and industries, including aerospace, automotive, construction, electronics, packaging and textiles.

We have hired a leading environmental consulting firm to conduct testing for PFOA and PFOS for more than 1,000 homes in our community and we have paid for every test.

We have supplied bottled water to residents in testing areas for free while they have waited for test results for their wells.

We have paid for the installation of more than 300 custom, whole house filters for individual residents.

We have made a commitment to install whole house filters and point-of-use filters for homes in study areas identified in consultation with MDEQ that test positive for any level of PFOA or PFOS.

We assembled a team within Wolverine to deal with this challenging and evolving situation on a daily basis. Executives from this team have attended two community town hall events and we answer every question from the community. We’ve answered over 2,000 calls and emails from our friends, families and neighbors.

In November, we set up this blog site – WeAreWolverine.com – to provide the community with updates and factual information on a regular basis.

Why did we take these actions?  Simply because these are our friends, family and neighbors.  We wanted to be sure you knew what we’re doing so that you understand that we haven’t just said that we are committed to doing the right thing, but we’re really striving to do the right thing.

We are doing all of this because we have been here for nearly 140 years and we plan to be here for another 140 years.  We live here and work here – every employee at Wolverine cares deeply about this community.

Thanks again for taking the time to come to West Michigan, we hope you’ll enjoy your day here.  We’d like to invite you back this summer (the weather is little nicer then, we promise) and host you at our offices.  We could update you on this situation and all the steps we’ve taken to help make this right for our community and to be a part of the solution for our hometown.

We Are Wolverine.

There has been a significant amount of attention paid in recent weeks to what we or others knew about the presence and risks of PFOA/PFOS in 3M’s Scotchgard™. We wanted to take a moment to clear up any misconceptions and make sure you have the facts.

First, for over four decades 3M manufactured, marketed, and sold Scotchgard™ product containing PFOA/PFOS to the public. Since announcing the phase-out of that version of Scotchgard™, 3M has repeatedly assured Wolverine and the public that there are no adverse effects on human health or the environment from Scotchgard™ containing PFOA/PFOS. As Wolverine proactively collects data and works with the community, agencies, and other partners to find answers and restore the community’s confidence in its drinking water, it is looking for 3M’s expert knowledge and research on the PFOA/PFOS compounds that were in Scotchgard™. To date, however, 3M has not engaged with Wolverine to discuss this situation.

Second, 3M has repeatedly assured Wolverine, the EPA, FDA, and scientific bodies that there are no adverse effects on human health or the environment from the PFOA/PFOS compounds in Scotchgard™. For example,

– After a meeting with 3M in 1999, Wolverine asked 3M to send it a letter summarizing the points 3M had raised about PFOS and Scotchgard™. This January 15, 1999 letter confirmed 3M was studying the potential effects of Scotchgard™, that “[n]o adverse health effect associated with PFOS exposure has been found in 3M employees” exposed to much higher levels of PFOS than the general population, and that 3M was advising the EPA and other regulatory agencies of its findings.

– By 2000, 3M began communicating with its customers about a Scotchgard™ formula change because PFOA/PFOS were “persistent in the environment.” Wolverine met with 3M to learn more about the change, and 3M again assured Wolverine that no adverse health or environmental effects were associated with PFOA/PFOS.

– Even after publicly announcing its formula change in 2000, 3M continued to produce and sell Scotchgard™ containing PFOA/PFOS for another two years.

– Based on years of research, 3M continues to state that there are no adverse health effects associated with the PFOA/PFOS compounds in its discontinued Scotchgard™ product. As 3M states on its website today (https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/sustainability-us/policies-reports/3m-and-fluorochemicals/), “We believe that PFOS and PFOA do not present health risks at levels they are typically found in the environment or in human blood” and that even “production workers who were exposed to these chemicals at levels significantly higher than those in the general population – often over an extended period of time . . . show no adverse health effects.”

Third, the conclusions 3M makes about its years of research have not been disproven.  The CDC also notes that “health effects can be caused by many different factors and there is no way to know if PFAS exposure has caused [] health problems or made [them] worse.”  Wolverine published a blog post discussing the science behind PFOS/PFOA here: https://wearewolverine.com/2017/11/20/key-facts-to-know-about-pfas-from-toxicologist-dr-janet-anderson-ph-d-dabt/ 

Finally, we acknowledge the fact that there is some misunderstanding about what we knew and when about the presence of PFOA/PFOS in Scotchgard™.  We never intended to infer that we did not know PFOA/PFOS was in Scotchgard™ and we sincerely apologize for any confusion.  For over a hundred years, Wolverine has been not only a leader and contributor to this community, but we’ve also been your neighbor – that’s why we’ve provided drinking water testing, bottled water, single-tap filters and whole house filtration systems.  We’re committed to doing the right thing and seeing this through to the end, and will continue to keep the community updated about these issues through our blog at www.WeAreWolverine.com.

One of the questions area residents have asked Wolverine, and that we’ve heard them ask the state and local health departments, is whether they should have their blood tested for PFAS.  We’re not the experts on this, but have spent a lot of time consulting experts and reviewing what they’ve said about it, and wanted to pass along what we’ve learned.

Blood testing is neither routine nor recommended in communities addressing potential PFAS impact on drinking water.  These positions are based on the fact that there is no clinical value to individual blood testing for PFAS.  In fact, such testing can present challenges to public health officials who are responsible for communicating risks, and for community members who are trying to understand how to interpret the results.  Health experts around the country, including here in Kent County, echo the conclusion that blood tests for PFAS are neither helpful nor recommended.

• “The blood test for PFAS can only tell us the levels of specific PFAS in your body at the time you were tested. The blood tests cannot be interpreted and used in patient care.  The blood test results cannot predict or rule-out the development of future problems related to suspected exposure.”

Source:  ATSDR (the federal public health agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services tasked to address PFAS exposure and blood testing)  “An Overview of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances and Interim Guidance for Clinicians Responding to Patient Exposure Concerns” dated June 7, 2017 and located at  https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfc/docs/pfas_clinician_fact_sheet_508.pdf

• Blood testing “has no prognostic or other value,” the CDC “does not recommend blood testing because they can’t interpret it,” and the Kent County Health Department has “a very high respect for what they say, and so that’s our position.”

Source:  Dr. Mark Hall, Medical Director, Kent County Health Department (November 29, 2017, Town Hall)

• “Blood tests are available, but not routinely done. The results can only be used to compare against the national average and cannot be used to predict health effects or determination of source.”

Source: Department of Navy 2016 https://www.bracpmo.navy.mil/content/dam/bracpmo/northeast/naval_air_station_joint_reserve_base_willow_grove/pdfs/meetings/20160523_Open_House_Posters.pdf

• “Blood testing can tell if a person’s PFC level is lower than, similar to, or higher than the blood levels of the general population.  However, testing is not recommended since results of blood tests don’t show whether you might have health problems from exposure to PFCs.”

Source: Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment 2017 https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/WQ-PFC-Blood-Testing-Info_Final_041417.pdf

• “Individuals who feel they may have been exposed to high levels of PFOA or PFOS and would like to have their blood levels measured should keep in mind that this is not a routine test that health care providers offer.  The test results will not provide clear answers for existing or possible health effects.”

Source: Alaska Department of Health and Human Services 2016 http://dec.alaska.gov/spar/csp/sites/docs/DeptofHealthPFASFactSheet.pdf

In addition, Wolverine Worldwide asked Dr. Janet Anderson, a board certified toxicologist and PFAS expert, to provide further explanation and she said:

There is no clinical value to blood testing for individuals, and it is neither routine nor recommended in areas that are being investigated for the presence of PFAS in drinking water.  In fact, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that over 99% of the population has some PFAS in their system – these substances are virtually everywhere and in everyone to some degree – and testing blood for PFAS provides no information about where they came from or what health effects, if any, a person might have. Lessons learned from the few places where PFAS analysis of blood has been conducted show us that residents and health care professionals are often dissatisfied and frustrated when the blood data results come back because the values cannot be used in any way and just lead to more questions.

We will continue to keep the community updated about this issue through our blog at www.WeAreWolverine.com.