track the health consequences of pfoa, a chemical linked to health problems like kidney cancer, birth defects, and immune system disorders. and last month, the epa made a reversal on what s considered safe levels of exposure to radiation. epa guidelines now say radiation exposures of 5 to 10 rem usually result in no harmful health effects. that s the equivalent of 5,000 chest x-rays, according to the public employees for environmental responsibility. there are many industries that have been pushing hard to roll back these rules, some of them are in the nuclear industry, some of them are in the hazardous waste industry. some of them are in the chemical industry. and scott pruitt has been meeting secretly with literally scores of these corporal executives quietly behind the scenes. reporter: but the epa is pushing back on the idea that pruitt is turning a blind eye to
whatsoever. in fact, when i asked the v.a. to test me for chemical contamination, i was told they were not authorized to do this. have you, james, been tested? conclusively tied to it this foam at this point? are you contaminated by this? the thing is they can t tie to it anything else. as far as conclusions, no. but there are too many people that are suffering from the same things that i am currently suffering from. my old base, we have a group of over 800 people now and it s all very similar. erin, when do you think the pentagon first got wind of the fact that this was seeping into the ground and it was possibly causing all these problems? how long ago? my gosh, some of the documents show there s issues with the pfoa and firefighting foam from 20 years ago. it s sad to say. i will say it. our department of defense is one