NH Health Officials Host Cancer Concerns Meeting Jan. 27

MERRIMACK, NH — State health officials are hosting a “cancer concerns” meeting for Merrimack and residents from surrounding communities on Jan. 27.

The meeting, which is open to residents of Merrimack as well as Bedford, Litchfield, and Londonderry, too, will provide updates on the status of cancer rates in the communities as well as New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services protocols, data analysis updates, and the next steps of the department’s investigation into cancer rates.

A question-and-answer session will also be held.

The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 27, via Zoom, at this link. Preregistration, according to officials, is recommended.

The meeting is being held to follow up with data released in December 2021, related to higher-than-expected kidney and renal cancer rates, when compared to similar-sized communities. That study was a follow-up to another Merrimack study, released in 2018, that eyed data between 2009 and 2017.

The original study was in response to perfluorinated chemicals in groundwater in town and a number of communities near or surrounding the Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics plant in Merrimack.

For more info about the NH DHHS Cancer Program, call 603-271-4959.

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