New Hampshire
After progress on PFAS bills this session, Merrimack reps promise, ‘We’ll be back’ • New Hampshire Bulletin
On Rep. Wendy Thomas’ Merrimack street, there are four private wells contaminated with PFAS, and four homes struck by cancer.
In one house, the dad died of kidney cancer. In another, a father and his adult son both died of colon cancer. In the third, the dad is dying of prostate cancer.
Thomas’ home is the fourth. Her children are sick, and she has had to put down four dogs because of cancer. In 2019, her husband had a quadruple cardiac bypass at age 55. In 2022, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
She had no genetic predisposition. She had no family history. But she did have 12 PFAS chemicals in her blood over the toxic limit set for humans. She attributes those chemicals to her health problems and those of her neighbors.
“We’ve hit some roadblocks,” Thomas, a Democrat, said of the PFAS legislation pushed by her and other lawmakers this session, “but I think we’ve made significant progress.”
Several bills aimed at PFAS – or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – passed the Legislature this session and await approval from the governor. Some of them were more watered down than their sponsors would have liked, but they’ll collectively put some limits on selling products with intentionally added PFAS, notify property-buyers of the chemicals, and create liability for PFAS-producing facilities.
PFAS are in New Hampshire’s air, water, and soil. The problems have been especially acute in southern New Hampshire, particularly in the communities surrounding Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, a French manufacturer that announced in August it would close its Merrimack facility that contaminated hundreds of private wells.
The class of chemicals, of which there are thousands of variations, have been used in industrial and commercial products since the mid-20th century. The “forever chemicals” – dubbed so because they don’t break down naturally in the environment – can be found in food packaging, waterproof cosmetics, dental floss, stain-resistant carpets, smartphones, cars, and much more.
Their presence in the environment has contaminated fish, dairy products, produce, and humans. Nearly all Americans have measurable amounts of PFAS in their blood, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
Research has linked PFAS to a number of health issues, including high cholesterol, weakened immune systems, decreased fertility, increased blood pressure in pregnant women, developmental problems in children, and prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers.
“The goal is to stop the source,” said Rep. Nancy Murphy, a Merrimack Democrat who sponsored several PFAS-related bills. “And that’s our intent, and we’re not gonna stop until we do that.”
Banning some PFAS products
A list of products with intentionally added PFAS will be prohibited from sale in New Hampshire starting in 2027 if the governor signs into law House Bill 1649, passed by the Legislature. That list includes:
- Carpets or rugs;
- Cosmetics;
- Textile treatments, such as those that add PFAS for stain- or water-resistant properties;
- Feminine hygiene products, such as tampons and pads;
- Food packaging and containers, such as plates, bowls, and bags;
- Products for children under 12, such as high chairs, playmats, and strollers;
- Upholstered furniture; and
- Textile furnishings, such as draperies, bedding, and towels.
This bill would not include unintentional PFAS contamination of a product in the production or shipping process, said bill sponsor Rep. Karen Ebel, a New London Democrat.
The bill would also exempt medical devices, adult mattresses, personal computers, wireless phones, and some other electronics. It would also allow products with at least 85 percent recycled content, the resale of products made before the ban, and replacement parts for products manufactured before 2027.
The bill would also – through language adopted from a separate Senate bill — require that funds received by the state through settling PFAS litigation be used to support public water systems contaminated by PFAS.
Ebel came to be interested in PFAS through her work chairing the state’s Solid Waste Working Group, created by statute to support the Department of Environmental Services on related issues.
Because of the abundance of PFAS in a variety of products, those chemicals end up in landfills – and, consequently, in the polluted water called leachate that leaks out of them. Some of that is treated by wastewater facilities, but some of it ends up in the environment and drinking water.
Ebel’s bill sought to stop that contamination before it got to the landfills. And considering the impact PFAS have had on New Hampshire, she said, “what better state to ban some of the products that have wreaked havoc and join other states that are doing this?”
Murphy, a cosponsor, would have liked to see fewer exclusions in the bill and wants to amend it in the future.
“These are incremental changes, and they’re far from perfect,” she said, “but we can’t let the … perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Accountability
Other measures this session sought to hold polluters accountable and get more data to explain the health outcomes people are seeing in their communities.
PFAS facilities that release such chemicals into the groundwater or surface water in total combined concentrations of 100 parts per trillion or greater would be held liable under House Bill 1415 by Murphy, which passed both chambers.
The goal of her bill, Murphy said, is to give our state agencies “some teeth in the law.”
“When polluters make that decision to shut down operations and leave the facility where they’ve done business,” Murphy said, “we must be sure that they are held responsible for removal of all PFAS materials and waste.”
Murphy said she is “cautiously optimistic” the governor will sign her bill.
Another measure passed by the Legislature, House Bill 398, would require that PFAS be included along with radon and arsenic in the notification about common contaminants in New Hampshire provided to a property-buyer.
The notice, if approved by the governor, would say that PFAS “have been detected at levels that exceed federal and/or state advisories or standards in wells throughout New Hampshire,” especially in the southern part of the state.
“Testing of the water by an accredited laboratory can measure PFAS levels and inform a buyer’s decision regarding the need to install water treatment systems,” the notice would read.
Thomas, the bill sponsor, wanted testing included in the bill but said the House watered it down from its original version.
She said she has heard stories of people who bought houses in town without ever being informed of the water contamination.
“To me, that’s just criminal,” Thomas said, “because, again, you’re not allowing them to protect themselves.”
Another proposal, House Bill 1114, sponsored by Murphy, will extend by five years the life of a commission to study PFAS released into the air, soil, and groundwater in Merrimack, Bedford, Londonderry, Hudson, and Litchfield.
Murphy sponsored the bill that first established the commission in 2019, shortly after she arrived at the State House. PFAS contamination is the issue that propelled her to public service.
“I had never been a legislator and actually, quite frankly, had never been interested in anything political” until then, Murphy said. But as a now-retired nurse and mother of six children who were feeling health impacts associated with PFAS, she quickly became interested.
The commission studies the health impacts of PFAS releases, and the re-upped version of the bill includes Hudson at the request of a lawmaker from there. Its membership represents state agencies, lawmakers, scientists, local government officials, and citizens from affected areas.
“This commission has been instrumental in seeking the collection of health data relative to the health concerns that we see in these communities and then spearheading the legislation to address that,” Murphy said.
‘We’ll be back’
Mindi Messmer, a scientist who discovered a pediatric cancer cluster along the Seacoast in 2014 and represented Rye in the House as a Democrat from 2016 to 2018, said she was the first person to file PFAS-related legislation in New Hampshire.
As a scientist, she thought she could explain the issues in a logical way and get people on board.
“That didn’t happen a lot of times,” she said, “and I also faced a ton of pushback from the regulators at the time.”
Murphy said they’re “light-years” ahead of where they were when Messmer first raised PFAS as an issue in the State House. The lawmakers focused on PFAS – some of whom call themselves “water warriors” – didn’t get everything they wanted this session, but they have made progress they said would have been hard to imagine a few years ago.
Murphy and Thomas are both rearing to bring forth more legislation next session – some of which will be aimed at strengthening bills passed this year, such as the product ban. Other initiatives may focus on health insurance coverage for PFAS-related health issues.
“We’ll be back,” Murphy said. “Anything that we didn’t pass, we’ll be back.”
For these lawmakers, this fight is as personal as it gets.
Thomas had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed preventively after her breast cancer diagnosis. “Sometimes I want to just forget that I have cancer,” she said, but she shares her story often to put a face to the consequences of PFAS contamination. She points at her chest when she talks about the issue in the State House.
“To live in a PFAS-contaminated town,” Thomas said, “we have to amputate parts of our bodies to lay at the altar of profit.”
New Hampshire
Opinion: The farm bill passed the House. Western New Hampshire got the bill. – Concord Monitor
In 1794, George Washington wrote that he knew of “no pursuit in which more zeal and important service can be rendered to any Country than by improving its agriculture.” Two hundred and thirty years later, the House just passed a farm bill that proves his successors stopped believing it.
Drive Route 12 through Walpole. Take Route 10 up through Haverhill. Cut across to Littleton, past the diner that has been feeding the town since 1930. The farms are there. Lush land that produces. People who work till their sweat and blood soak the ground they nurture. A region with every ingredient to feed itself.
What is not there is the processing facility that makes it worth raising the animal. The cold storage that keeps the crop from spoiling before it finds a buyer. The regional market that pays a price worth planting for. I want to believe Washington did not forget to build those things. Regardless, it built something else instead — a system that works beautifully for an operation running 10,000 acres in the Midwest and leaves the farmer on Route 12 doing the math at the kitchen table at midnight wondering if this is the last season.
And the 2026 Farm Bill just made that system more expensive to survive. Large commodity operations received a $54 billion subsidy increase over the next 10 years, with individual payment caps that can exceed $900,000 per operation. Is the farmer at your farmers market in position for this kind of payout?
The bill guarantees money, codified by law, for the people who need it least. Local food programs were reauthorized with zero mandatory funding, but plenty of empty words. They exist on paper and nowhere else. It means a farmer in Plainfield cannot count on them. It means Coos County, where one in seven people cannot reliably put food on the table, keeps waiting for help that has been promised and deferred so many times the promise itself has become an insult. Especially when supermarkets and superstores — just 15% of SNAP-accepting establishments — vacuum up nearly 74% of every food assistance dollar, while the local farm stand sees almost none of it.
And that is before the input costs.
Local farmers know this better than most. You buy fuel and fertilizer on global markets you have no vote in and no say over. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, causing record high prices for fertilizers globally, all because Russia is the world’s top exporter and suddenly it wasn’t exporting. And while that news cycle is long buried, remember that the Iran war has closed the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer travels. Diesel recently crossed $5 a gallon, which large trucks that move food and tractors rely on. Fertilizer went from $500 a ton to $850. One tractor cost $350 more than it did last year. You did not start either of those wars, yet you pay for both of them. And that is not even accounting for the sharp sting of tariffs on the inputs you depend on to plant next season.
Chapter 12 farm bankruptcies rose 55% in 2024. Then another 46% in 2025, and those numbers only count the farms that qualified for Chapter 12, which requires the majority of family income to come from farming. The ones that don’t qualify quietly disappear, not even a balance sheet to mark the years of struggle, labor and community these farmers gave. They just stop. Since 2018, this country has lost more than 158,000 farms, with every size category shrinking except operations over a million dollars in annual revenue. Those are still growing, and will do so as long as the policy is written to grow them. Another example of an unlevel playing field where the rich get richer.
To be clear about something: large-scale agriculture feeds a lot of people and nobody sat in a room and decided to destroy the small farm. But does intent matter when these are the results? The system produces what it was designed to produce. That is exactly the problem. It was not designed with you in mind, and after enough years of that, the results look intentional even when they are not.
I got involved locally here because I believe western New Hampshire has everything it needs to feed itself and then some. Four thousand farms, nearly half a million acres, led by a direct-sales culture that leads the entire country. What is missing is not the land or the people or the will. What is missing is a representative who walks into bill negotiations fighting for the farmer on Route 12 instead of the operation collecting a $900,000 subsidy check in a state they have never visited, and pretending it actually helps their constituents.
I have a specific plan for how existing federal dollars already flowing into this district get redirected toward processing, storage and regional market access that actually serves the farms here. No new appropriations. No new programs. A full breakdown is at livefreenh02.com/food-independence.
Daniel Webster, born thirty miles from where I am writing this, put it in the Capitol: “The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” Washington and Webster were not just statesmen. They farmed. They understood what was at stake when the land stopped producing for the people who worked it. The authors of the 2026 farm bill apparently do not.
Robbie Mahrou is an independent candidate for U.S. Congress in New Hampshire’s Second District and a Walpole resident. She can be reached out robbie@livefreenh02.com.
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Concord on Friday to discuss a new health initiative to prevent and combat Lyme disease.
The visit was part of the “Take Back Your Health” campaign tour, a multimillion dollar initiative to promote dietary changes and exercise as preventative measures for chronic illness. Kennedy has been traveling the country to outline projects, including changing federal dietary guidelines, gut microbiome research, and addiction recovery.
Kennedy said his goal was to reduce Lyme disease by 25% by 2035.
Kennedy announced that over $2 million of federal funding will be up for grabs for projects focused on the prevention and treatment of Lyme disease. The grants, through a program called LymeX, will be available to businesses, scientists, and the public.
At the press conference Friday, Kennedy said the grants will go to projects including education tools and public awareness campaigns, front-line solutions like medication, and AI technology.
“This initiative will harness artificial intelligence and open data to help patients with Lyme disease and other invisible illnesses. Get answers faster and connect to care sooner,” he said.
Lyme in NH
New Hampshire has long been one of the epicenters for Lyme disease. The state has the seventh highest rate of Lyme disease in the country, according to the most recent data from 2023.
Read more: It’s tick season in New England. Here’s how to stay safe.
Tick season is a well-established time of year in New England, with an increase in cases and hospital visits in April and May. Research from Dartmouth shows half of adult blacklegged ticks in the Northeast carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
In a health advisory issued on Wednesday, State Epidemiologist Benjamin Chan pointed out that Lyme disease is one of the most common infections spread through tick bites. Other tick-borne infections include anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and Powassan virus.
Lyme is also the most common tick-borne illness in America, with an estimated 476,000 people getting the disease each year nationwide, according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Service.
Kennedy’s record on Lyme disease
In the past, Kennedy has promoted a conspiracy theory that Lyme disease was bioengineered by the U.S. military. Late last year, he advocated for an investigation into a possible link between the military and the disease as part of a provision in a new defense bill, Scientific American and Politico reported.
Around that time, Kennedy said many patients’ claims were ignored, and he announced that “the gaslighting of Lyme patients is over.”
As an anti-vaccine activist, Kennedy launched a bid for the Democratic nomination for president in 2024. He then ran briefly as an independent before quitting and endorsing Donald Trump.
Trump later nominated him for health secretary, and he was confirmed by the Senate in early 2025 on a party-line vote.
Kennedy is the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, and a son of Robert F. Kennedy, who was slain during his campaign for president in 1968. In his own bid for the White House, RFK Jr.’s name was never on the ballot in New Hampshire. In mid-2024, a UNH Survey Center poll found he mustered only 3% support among likely voters.
More resources
What to do if you’ve been bitten by a tick: Step one, don’t panic.
Tick season: How not to get bit
Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in a series honoring Seacoast veterans’ military service and the organizations who support veterans sponsored by Service Credit Union. It appears each Friday. Nominate a veteran you know to be profiled by clicking on this link or using the form below. More than 85,000 veterans live in New Hampshire, according to the state’s Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services. Here are some of the many services available to veterans, their families, caregivers and supporters in the state.
New Hampshire Division of Veterans Services
This is the state’s starting point for veterans’ assistance. It can be reached by phone at 603-624-9230 or 800-622-9230, and online at nhveterans.nh.gov/veterans-services. On this site, you can find an important guide to services for veterans and their families. The N.H. Guide to Veterans’ Services is a PDF that can be viewed online or downloaded and printed out, and contains a plethora of important information about all aspects of a veterans’ life. https://www.nhveterans.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt401/files/inline-documents/2021-07/nhes-031320-vets-dir-guide-final.pdf
N.H. Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services
New Hampshire’s Department of Military Affairs and Veterans Services (DMAVS) has mission to oversee and support the Service Members of the New Hampshire National Guard (NHNG) and to provide quality services to the state’s veterans and their families, according to its website. Call 603-225-1200 or find it online at https://www.nhveterans.nh.gov. There is a list of the state’s regional Veterans Services Officers and how to reach them or make an appointment at nhveterans.nh.gov/veterans-services/vsos-and-sites
Veterans Count
Veterans Count, a program of Easterseals NH Vets Count, provides mental health counseling, care coordination, housing stabilization, substance use treatment coordination, benefits and resources connection, and emergency financial assistance to all who have served in the military regardless of service era, discharge status or VA eligibility. The program connects veterans and their families with the help and resources they need confidentially. Email intake@vetscount.org or call 603-315-4354 or learn more at vetscount.org. The statewide Veterans Count program has four regional chapters. You can reach the Seacoast chapter at vetscount.org/chapters/seacoast. Vets Count presents local events and fundraisers like the upcoming Veterans Count Pack & Boots 5K Road Race on Sunday, July 5 from 8 to 11 a.m. beginning on Pierce Island in Portsmouth and ending in Prescott Park. Service members, veterans and community members are invited to participate in the fitness event designed for all ages and abilities, which will include a Survival Run-All, where runners carry a pack equal to 10% of their body weight; a Kids Fun Run 100-Meter Dash, and a 5K Road Race. Register at https://vetscount.org/events/veterans-count-pack-boots-5k-road-race/
Veterans Inc.
Veterans Inc. is the largest provider of support services to veterans and their families in New England. Email info@vertansinc.org, call 800-482-2565, sign up for its electronic newsletter and visit veteransinc.org.
Veterans Benefits Administration
A good source of information for the federal government’s veterans’ benefits and where you can search to locate a variety of local offices for federal services. Visit benefits.va.gov/benefits.
Pease ANGB Retiree Activities Office
The Retiree Activities Office at Pease provides information, services and programs to military retirees — all ranks, all services. Its mission is to act as an interface between the active-duty and retired communities; keep retirees updated on various matters; provide information and services as necessary or appropriate; and to represent retired members at the base and Air Force level, according to its website 157arw.ang.af.mil/About-Us/Retiree-Activities-Office/ where you can sign up for a periodic newsletter. The office has limited weekly hours so check its website for when it’s open or call 603-430-2636 and email peaseangb.rao@gmail.com.
Community-based Military Programs
The mission of the state’s Division of Community Based Military Programs is to collaborate, coordinate, and communicate with military and civilian provider groups to promote the delivery of quality health care services to New Hampshire veterans, service members and their families. Visit nhveterans.nh.gov/community-based-military-programs.
National Social Work Program local representatives
There is a social work leader in every VA health care system to help veterans get the care they need, according to the VA website, and connect them to the appropriate VA employee to assist them. New Hampshire’s social work leader is Kristin Maxwell. Contact Kristin. Maxwell@va.gov or call 603-624-4366. Visit socialwork.va.gov/Social_Work_Leaders.asp#NewHampshire.
Veterans Crisis Line
Veterans in crisis or someone who is concerned a veteran is in crisis can reach immediate help by dialing 988, then press 1. This is the National Suicide Hotline and by pressing 1, you’ll reach those specifically trained in veterans’ needs and resources. Veterans don’t need to be enrolled in VA benefit or health care to access this help, and it’s completely confidential. Free and available 24/7 every day. The Crisis Line can also be reached at its previous number, 800-273-8255, by text at 838255 and through chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat.
Veterans Councils
Many cities and towns in New Hampshire have a Veterans Council to assist its residents. An example is Rochester’s Veterans Council at rochesterveteranscouncil.com or
Veterans Groups and Meetings
Community meetings and socials are a great resource for veterans looking for information and help. The Rochester NH Veterans for Veterans (facebook.com/groups/1258228782144974) meets every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon at the Rochester Community Center and is sponsored by Rochester Recreation. All Veterans are welcome to attend the open discussions, which sometimes host a guest speaker from a veterans organizations to help members find resources. The Portsmouth Senior Activity Center hosts a Drop-In Veterans Social at 1 p.m. every Wednesday sponsored by the local Daughters of the American Revolution. All are welcome.
Assistance for veterans
There are many non-profits that provide a specific service to veterans. Some are:
Vouchers for Veterans
This non-profit, which was founded in Rochester, N.H., recognizes and thanks veterans for their service by providing voucher so they can purchase locally grown and prepared food directly from farmers and growers at local farmers markets. Visit vouchersforveterans.org or find them on Facebook at Vouchersforveterans.
Roofs For Veterans and Roof-A-Vet
Two non-profits will provide veterans with a new roof. Find more info at roofvets.com/roofs-for-veterans and roofavet.org. There are many organizations like these that will assist a veteran with home repairs or renovations.
Northeast Passage
Northeast Passage, based at the University of New Hampshire, provides adaptive sports and recreational opportunities for veteran and active-duty service members of all service eras and all ability levels. Many programs are free through funding from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, a partnership with Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Operation Hat Trick and local organizations, according to its website. It offers veteran-specific events, group outings and competitive teams in sled hockey, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair lacrosse or power soccer. Visit nepassage.org/veteran-recreation.
University of New Hampshire Military and Veteran Services
UNH provides service and support to student veterans, service members and other military-affiliated students such as dependents. Contact Kalyn Ryll, director of military and veteran services, at Kalyn.Ryll@unh.edu or 603-862-3480.
Local VFW and American Legion posts
Find a local American Legion post at mylegion.org/PersonifyEbusiness/Find-a-Post. Find a Veterans of Foreign Wars post at vfw.org/find-a-post.
Elks programs for veterans
Many local Elks lodges have events or programs for veterans. The Elks have made a pledge “So long as there are veterans, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks will never forget them.” Its Elks National Veterans Service Commission helps local lodges provide services locally. The Portsmouth lodge is very active in helping veterans. Find more information at elks.org/vets/default.cfm?m=programs.
Service Credit Union thanks veterans for their military service and remembers all those service members currently deployed around the world. R.E.D. Friday stands for Remember Everyone Deployed on Fridays when some wear red to honor service members deployed worldwide.
-
Detroit, MI10 minutes ago
Black Legacy Day to be celebrated May 30th in Detroit
-
San Francisco, CA20 minutes agoA 1906 fire burned 200,000 books. More than a century later, one was returned | CNN
-
Dallas, TX25 minutes agoCowboys news: More moves that Dallas could make this offseason
-
Miami, FL32 minutes agoHere’s a guide to the seven World Cup teams (and their fans) headed to Miami | Honolulu Star-Advertiser
-
Boston, MA35 minutes agoStormy Saturday, slightly sunnier Sunday – Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
-
Denver, CO40 minutes agoStorm threat for northeastern Colorado Saturday; sunny and warmer Sunday
-
Seattle, WA47 minutes agoWEST SEATTLE SATURDAY: 33 options!
-
San Diego, CA50 minutes agoLetters: Stop taxpayer funds for short-term rental trash
