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GenX Compound Now Detected In Food Product In North Carolina

An aerial view of the Cape Fear River near Wilmington. Chemours recently lost its permit to discharge wastewater into the river. Photo courtesy U.S Army Corps of Engineers

An unregulated compound has been found in more than 80 wells near a chemical company's manufacturing facility in North Carolina. And now GenX has been detected in a food product for the first time.

Honey collected by a Robeson County farmer was tested for levels of the potentially harmful GenX compound, the StarNews of Wilmington reported. Those levels were found to be nearly 15 times higher than the health goal set by state officials. The farm is southwest of the Chemours Co. plant.

The director of the state Department of Environmental Quality's division of waste management, Michael Scott, told the state Secretaries' Science Advisory Board on Monday that the farmer doesn't sell the honey.

Officials are unsure if the viscosity of honey could have affected the test results, and have asked the Environmental Protection Agency for guidance.

Last week Chemours lost its permit to discharge wastewater into the Cape Fear River. The chemical has been detected in 85 wells near the company's plant in Bladen County.

Neal Charnoff joined 88.5 WFDD as Morning Edition host in 2014. Raised in the Catskill region of upstate New York, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1983. Armed with a liberal arts degree, Neal was fully equipped to be a waiter. So he prolonged his arrested development bouncing around New York and L.A. until discovering that people enjoyed listening to his voice on the radio. After a few years doing overnight shifts at a local rock station, Neal spent most of his career at Vermont Public Radio. He began as host of a nightly jazz program, where he was proud to interview many of his idols, including Dave Brubeck and Sonny Rollins. Neal graduated to the news department, where he was the local host for NPR's All Things Considered for 14 years. In addition to news interviews and features, he originated and produced the Weekly Conversation On The Arts, as well as VPR Backstage, which profiled theater productions around the state. He contributed several stories to NPR, including coverage of a devastating ice storm. Neal now sees the value of that liberal arts degree, and approaches life with the knowledge that all subjects and all art forms are connected to each other. Neal and his wife Judy are enjoying exploring North Carolina and points south. They would both be happy to never experience a Vermont winter again.

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