PFAS blood contamination of water (2) (FOI)

​​​​Request

The "mean" blood level for PFAS chemical PFHxS in the USA is 1200 ppt.

Recently, over 100 concerned islanders underwent independent blood testing.  These islanders are concerned that the high levels of PFHxS (and other PFAS subtypes) in the tap water are mounting up in islanders' bloodstreams. 

Most islanders tested, many who historically have drunk only mains water, have found themselves to be contaminated with far higher than 'average' levels of PFHxS. Ranges went from 1100 pt to 10,200 ppt. 

This indicates a contamination is taking place. PFAS chemicals are a known carcinogen. 

PFHxS is one of the PFAS chemicals that were spilled on the land at St Ouen. A water body under this area of St Ouen was later flushed into our mains drinking water in an attempt to dilute it. 

A

Please advise what the Government of Jersey is doing to publicly acknowledge this contamination.

B

Please confirm what the the Government is doing to make sure the contamination cannot continue.

​Response

A and B

The requested information is exempt under Article 35 (Formulation and development of policies) of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 as this project currently remains policy under development. 

Release of the information at this stage would likely generate misinformed debate. This could affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately.  

Article 35 is a qualified exemption; therefore, a public interest test has been applied and is shown at the end of this response.

The information which is available about PFAS is on the Government of Jersey’s website linked below:

PFAS in Jersey (gov.je)​

Article applied

Article 35 - Formulation and development of policies 

Information is qualified exempt information if it relates to the formulation or development of any proposed policy by a public authority.

Public Interest Test

​The following considerations were taken into account: 

Public interest considerations favouring disclosure  

• Disclosure of the information would support transparency and promote accountability to the general public, providing confirmation that the necessary discussions have taken place. 
• Disclosure to the public fulfils an educative role about the early stages in policy development and illustrates how the department engages with parties for this purpose.   

Public interest considerations favouring withholding the information  

• In order to best develop policy and provide advice to Ministers, officials need a safe space in which free and frank discussion can take place – discussion of how documentation is presented and provided is considered as integral to policy development as iterations of documents are demonstrative of the policy development process.  
• The need for this safe space is considered at its greatest during the live stages of a policy.  
• Release of the information at this stage might generate misinformed debate in. This would affect the ability of officials to consider and develop policy away from external pressures, and to advise Ministers appropriately.  
• Premature disclosure of this information may limit the willingness of parties to provide their honest views and feedback. This would hamper and harm the policy–making process not only in relation to this subject area but in respect of future policy development across wider departmental business. 

Following assessment, the Government of Jersey has concluded that, on balance, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. 

It should also be noted that once a policy is formulated and published, the public interest in withholding information relating to its formulation is diminished, however, the use of the exemption can be supported if it preserves sufficient freedom during the policy formulation phase to explore options without that process being hampered by some expectation of future publication.