More than a year after scores of Franklin County residents began reporting bizarre and unexplained medical problems, state and federal health officials have concluded there’s no evidence to link those ailments to formaldehyde use on Vermont’s dairy farms.

The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) have both released studies saying there’s no causal connection.

However, the activist who first began documenting these medical issues and brought them to light is challenging that conclusion, saying that the public air sampling the studies were based on were flawed. The VDH report, issued today, can be found here. The ATSDR report can be found here. Additional background info from VDH can be found here.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!

Staff Writer Ken Picard is a senior staff writer at Seven Days. A Long Island, N.Y., native who moved to Vermont from Missoula, Mont., he was hired in 2002 as Seven Days’ first staff writer, to help create a news department. Ken has since won numerous...

2 replies on “Department of Health: Formaldehyde Use on VT Dairy Farms Not A Public Health Risk”

  1. There’s a higher concentration in many OTC medicines.
    “”You can’t disprove this hypothesis that formaldehyde is the
    source or related to these health issues.”
    As Balcom explains, there are a number of variables that could
    explain the inconclusive results, including an unusually early and warm
    spring that may have volatilized formaldehyde more quickly than normal. “
    Well you can’t prove anything, you can only disprove, that is in essence the scientific method. However, there is one quick way to disprove Mr.(Dr,?) Balcom’s hypothesis… was there a corresponding decrease in medical symptons this year? If there was his hypothesis is valid, if not his hypothesis is disproven.

  2. This is all new to me. So you’re telling me that a hazmat (hazardous material) that required special packaging, placarding, etc to ship around in small quantities in a box can be freely spread on hay and corn fields and used on cows feet without any oversight/testing/controls/etc. What stops it from getting into waterways as well then? Also, this makes me ask the question, what the heck else can be in Manure then that the general public should be made aware of? Maybe embalming fluid is just one of many things in there that we should be concerned about. What ever happened to just letting the cows pasture, fertilize and get natural foot care?

Comments are closed.