Toxicologist testifies that jet fuel in marine water did not sicken plaintiffs in Hawaii

A Navy contractor inspects a water line connecting to a granular activated carbon system at the Red Hill well near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, in April 2022. (Mar’Queon AD Tramble/US Navy)

HONOLULU — Medical problems reported by residents of military housing in Hawaii in late 2021 were not caused by tap water contaminated with Navy jet fuel, a toxicologist said Wednesday in Hawaii federal court.

“I came to the conclusion that they were not toxicological,” testified Robyn Prueitt on behalf of the U.S. government, the defendant in a civil suit brought by military families alleging physical and mental illness caused by consuming the water .

Prueitt, who works for the environmental consulting firm Gradient, testified that her conclusion was based on the existing medical literature on the effects of exposure to JP-5 jet fuel on human health and on the estimated amount of jet fuel in the plaintiffs’ tap water.

“There are no reliable human studies of JP-5,” she said.

The 17 plaintiffs, who lived in military communities near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in late 2021, say exposure to the contaminated water caused a host of medical problems, including headaches, nausea, dizziness, brain fog, anxiety and tremors .

Plaintiffs said last week that some medical problems still persist after two years and in some cases have even gotten worse.

U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi, who is hearing the case without a jury, has repeatedly said from the bench that the purpose of the trial is to determine the cause of the alleged injuries and what compensation, if any, the plaintiffs should receive.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Kristina Baehr, cross-examined Prueitt based on the toxicologist’s previously filed affidavit in the case.

Prueitt testified that the stress of “the incident itself and the perception of the individuals” could have manifested itself in the circumstances that prosecutors felt.

“Certain health symptoms may occur in individuals in response to an odorous chemical that is perceived as unpleasant or unhealthy at exposure concentrations below the toxicity threshold, but these symptoms result from stress-induced responses to the perception of the odor as a health risk. risk (i.e., a non-toxicological mechanism),” Prueitt stated in her statement.

Baehr cited several studies on the effects of JP-5 fuel on health that Prueitt did not include in her review, including a 2023 study in the Journal of Water and Health titled “Community health impacts after a jet fuel leak contaminated a drinking water system : Oahu, Hawaii, November 2021.”

“I have not taken into account any reports that have self-reported symptoms,” Prueitt said.

“These types of studies are published all the time,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they are reliable.”

Earlier in the day, Walter Grayman, an environmental and civil engineer, testified for the defense about models he formulated to determine the levels of JP-5 jet fuel in the Navy’s water system between Nov. 24 and Dec. 5, 2021.

His model showed that the contamination was limited to certain parts of the water system and that it diluted relatively quickly over the twelve days he analyzed.

His findings contrasted with the modeling of the plaintiffs’ water expert, Paul Rosenfeld, who testified earlier in the trial that JP-5 fuel entered the Navy’s water system with enough density to produce a sheen on the water in many homes .

Rosenfeld testified Tuesday that his “well-mixed” model assumed that hydrocarbon liquids such as diesel and jet fuel will dissolve when mixed with water if the petroleum liquid is less than 5 milligrams per liter.

Concentrations greater than that will leave a sheen on the water, as residents of the Navy water system reported through early December 2021, he said.

“The entire system is highly interconnected,” Rosenfeld testified Tuesday.

Prueitt testified that she based her conclusions on Grayman’s model.

Further questioned by Baehr, Prueitt acknowledged that if Grayman’s model did not provide accurate JP-5 concentrations, her conclusions would be “so far off.”