When a chemical spill in Elk River contaminated the drinking water of nearly 300,000 West Virginians in 2014, little was known about the contaminant MCHM, a type of methanol used industrially for cleaning coal. But now that it was in a local water source … is it a safety issue? Would exposure harm brain development in children? Jennifer Freeman, a Purdue University associate professor of toxicology, wanted to answer those questions, and her group conducted a toxicological assessment on the MCHM mixture that escaped Tank 396 that day.
October 31, 2018