Household Recruitment Letter

Appendix A.1 Household Recruitment Letter

PFAS Environmental Sampling at Select Exposure Assessment Locations

Household Recruitment Letter

Reading Level: 10.5

Dear [Insert Name],

CDC/ATSDR thanks you again for being part of the PFAS Exposure Assessment (EA) that was conducted in {insert community} in {insert date}. You received the results of your biological and/or environmental testing in 2020 and the final community report was released in XX 2021.

During the EA process, you agreed to allow us to contact you about future PFAS activities that are taking place in your community. CDC/ATSDR, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is collecting additional environment samples at the homes of some EA participants that will be analyzed for PFAS. We are trying to identify sources of PFAS that are not related to drinking water.

We are inviting you to be a part of the environmental sampling for PFAS at your home. We will be collecting samples at a maximum of 80 homes of EA participants.

If you would like to be a part of this investigation, please contact us at XXX. We will only be able to sample at 80 homes, so if you want to participate, we urge you to call to make an appointment as soon as possible. We will enroll participants on a first-come, first-serve basis.

An indoor dust sample will be collected at all 80 homes using a small vacuum and a filter. A consent form will need to be signed by one adult from the household whose blood was tested during the EA. The person who signs the consent form will also be asked to complete questionnaires similar to the one completed during the EA. Other adults and children that live in the household and participated in the EA will also be asked to sign a consent form and fill out a short questionnaire. One appointment will be needed to take the dust sample and to complete the consent forms and questionnaires. The appointment will take about one hour to complete.

For 20 of the 80 households, additional sampling will be done that will require two appointments instead of just one. In addition to the filtered dust sample and completion of the consent forms and questionnaires, the following samples will be taken at the home:

• Indoor air

• Bulk dust sample from your vacuum cleaner

• Surface wipe samples

• Soil

• Silicone wristbands

PFAS exposure indoors will be measured using the indoor air, indoor dust, and surface wipe samples. Outdoor exposure will be measured using soil samples. The silicone wristbands will be provided to the person in the household who signs the consent form. The silicone wristbands will be worn for a week to look at personal PFAS exposure both inside and outside the home.

No biological samples (e.g., blood or urine) will be taken as part of this investigation.

Two appointments will be needed for the households that have the additional samples taken because both the indoor air sample and the silicone wristbands will be collected one week after the first appointment. The total time needed to complete the additional sampling is approximately 4 hours spread over two appointments.

We will also be taking samples of outdoor air from a central location within the community, not associated with your home. Samples of locally grown produce will also be collected to look at PFAS exposure in the diet.

CDC/ATSDR will conduct this investigation from [insert dates here].

As soon as test results are available, we will send them to you electronically or by mail at the address you provided on the consent form.

Research to better understand the health effects associated with PFAS exposure is ongoing, but scientists are not currently certain of how PFAS levels in the blood can affect a person’s health. More research is needed to clarify the risks posed by PFAS exposure. It is possible that new tests will be developed in the future that will increase our understanding of how PFAS impact human health. If there are any remaining samples after analysis, we would like to keep them so that scientists can test for PFAS if new tests are developed. To do this, we will need your permission when we collect samples from your home. We will provide you with the results of future testing.

Please be assured that, if required at the time of sampling, CDC/ATSDR will take needed steps to protect members of your community and our sampling team from COVID-19. The sampling will be conducted following all state, local, and CDC guidelines in place at the time the sampling is conducted. All CDC/ATSDR and EPA team members will be fully vaccinated.

As with the samples taken during the EA, there will be no charge for the collection or analysis of the environmental samples taken during this investigation.

The Benefits of Participating in Our Environmental Sampling

Your participation in this environmental sampling will give you information about levels of PFAS in your home. We will use the results of the environmental sampling and the questionnaires to better interpret your blood results from the EA.

We will not be able to tell you if the PFAS levels found in your home may make you sick now or later in life. You will be able to call project staff during and after the environmental sampling is completed if you have any questions about your results. If your doctor has questions about PFAS, he or she may also call project staff or the physician working on the environmental sampling EI. The names and phone numbers of people to call are listed below.

To show our appreciation for the time that you will take to allow us to complete the sampling in your home, a gift card in the amount of $20 will be provided to each household for each appointment ($40 total for the households with the additional sampling).

The Risks of Participating in Our Environmental Sampling

You may be inconvenienced since we will be in your home to complete the sampling. If you are chosen for the additional sampling, there may be the sounds of a sampling pump in your home for up to a week to obtain the air sample.

CDC/ATSDR will be taking precautions to minimize the risk associated with COVID-19 transmission for both participants and CDC/ATSDR team members, as needed.

Additional Information and Privacy Act Statement:

• Results: We will send you a letter with your PFAS sampling results, electronically or through the mail. This investigation will tell you how much PFAS may be inside and/or outside your home and may contribute to your PFAS exposure.

• Privacy: All personally identifiable information (PII) (such as name, address, date of birth) gathered for the PFAS exposure sampling is private. This information is protected according to federal and state regarding privacy protection. Only trained and authorized project staff will be allowed to look at information that can identify you. We will keep all of the information in a secure, locked database or file at all times. Except for the environmental sampling team, you are the only one who will receive your individual results. In accordance with CDC/ATSDR’s policy regarding data access, sampling results that do not include PII may be used by public health researchers for approved research purposes.

• Voluntary Participation: Participation in this investigation is completely voluntary. Even if you decide to take part, you are free to quit the investigation at any time. If at any time in the future, you would like to have your samples destroyed or be removed from the assessment, please call Karen Scruton at 770-488-1325.

The enclosed fact sheets provide more information about the PFAS environmental sampling investigation.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact Karen Scruton at 770-488-1325.

Thank you,

Enclosures:

• PFAS Frequently Asked Questions Fact Sheet (cleared content)

• PFAS Exposure Assessment Results Fact Sheet for MA/DE (cleared content)

• PFAS Environmental Sampling Fact Sheet (provided below)

From: https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/pfas/additional_resources.html