09/24/2026
Why Dr. Dana Barr is not including Whitfield County in Emory' latest PFAS study slated for Flord and Gordon Counties:
From Hartwell Brooks with Calhoun- Water Matters-
Carmen Shuler, I have an answer directly from Dr. Barr.
She said I can share this.
“Hartwell,
Thanks for reaching out about this. I completely understand why Whitfield County residents would ask, particularly given the carpet industry has been concentrated in that area. The decision to focus this particular study on Rome/Floyd County and Calhoun/Gordon County was really driven by the design of the research rather than by any suggestion that Whitfield County has not been affected or that concerns there are less important. Our initial pilot biomonitoring study was conducted in Rome and Calhoun at the specific request of residents in those towns, and the results from that work provided the preliminary data and community foundation for the larger intervention study that NIH has now funded. As a result, the new study was designed as a direct extension of that work in those same communities.
There are also practical reasons for keeping the geographic area relatively focused. This is a fairly intensive clinical trial that requires multiple participant visits, blood collections, medication management and follow-up, so we had to define a feasible recruitment area in the grant application. Expanding the study to additional counties would have increased the complexity considerably and potentially made it more difficult to conduct the trial as rigorously as we need to.
I do want to be very clear, though, that excluding Whitfield County from this particular study does not mean that we think PFAS exposure there is not important. We recognize the concerns about PFAS exposure in Whitfield County and the broader North Georgia region and extending even into Alabama. We would very much like to find opportunities to include Whitfield County residents and other North GA/Alabama residents in future research. Also, the current clinical trial may provide information that would be helpful to Whitefield residents.
Please feel free to share that explanation with anyone who has asked. I also appreciate you letting me know that people are concerned about it as it is important for us to hear that feedback.
Best,
Dana
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Researchers from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health announced a new clinical trial Tuesday that will be one of the first large-scale trials to test a way to medically remove the dangerous PFAS chemicals from a person's body,
