There Are ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Your Water—and the EPA Wants to Clean Them Up
The EPA issued a new proposal to remove PFAS from water supplies nationwide.
The proposal targets six out of thousands of known forever chemicals.
The chemicals have been linked to cancer, thyroid issues, and fertility problems, among other things.
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed national drinking water standards for “forever chemicals.” The first-ever national drinking water standards would target six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that are known to occur in drinking water.
The EPA shared in a news release that the new levels would be “legally enforceable” if the proposal is finalized. While there are more than 9,000 PFAS known to be in existence, the proposal focuses on six. The proposal would regulate PFOA and PFOS, along with four other PFAS—PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS, and GenX Chemicals—as a mixture.
The proposal suggests that water systems would use an approach known as a hazard index calculation to determine if the combined levels of these PFAS posed a potential health risk.
The proposal raises a lot of questions about forever chemicals, including how they end up in your water and whether you can do anything on your own to get rid of them. Here’s what you need to know.
What are forever chemicals?
Forever chemicals are a large and complex group of synthetic chemicals that have been used in consumer products since the 1950s, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). PFAS have a wide range of uses, including keeping food from sticking to packages or cookware, making carpets stain-resistant, and creating firefighting foam.
PFAS molecules have a chain of linked carbon and fluorine atoms, which is one of the strongest. Because of this, the chemicals don’t break down easily in the environment, says Jamie Alan, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University.
While there are thousands of PFAS that have been identified, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that it can assess environmental contamination and potential human health hazards for the six mentioned in the new proposal.
What is the potential harm in PFAS?
PFAS can cause serious health problems, including cancer, if people are exposed to them over time, the EPA says. PFAS have also been linked to obesity, infertility, thyroid disease, and more, Alan says.
Unfortunately, PFAS can build up in your body over time, and you can take in more chemicals than you excrete, the NIH says. In June, the EPA issued health advisories stating that PFAS are more hazardous to human health than scientists previously thought and may be more dangerous at lower levels than previously believed.
“The risk of adverse health effects depends on the amount of exposure, with risk increasing with increased exposure,” says Robert Laumbach, M.D., M.P.H., at Rutgers Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute. “The specific PFAS compounds for which we have more knowledge of health effects have been phased out of use in the U.S. for more than 10 years, but they persist in the environment and are found in many drinking water supplies across the U.S.”
Research into the impact of PFAS on human health is ongoing. As a result, “we do not know the full scope of what they can do,” Alan says.
How are you exposed to PFAS?
You can be exposed to PFAS from a lot of different sources—forever chemicals can leach into the soil, water, and air, the NIH says. However, most people are exposed to these chemicals by consuming contaminated food or water, using products made with PFAS, or breathing air that contains it, the organization says.
One report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 97% of Americans have PFAS in their blood. Another study published in 2019 found that 98% of Americans have PFAS in their blood.
Data from the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) suggested that blood levels of PFOS and PFOA have been reduced since the chemicals were removed from consumer products in the early 2000s but, the NIH points out, new PFAS chemicals have been introduced since then.
Can you remove PFAS from your own water?
Possibly. “Water filters can help, but a typical filter may not be very good at removing PFAS—some have been found to remove only about 50% of PFAS concentrations at the previous EPA guideline levels)—and may be less effective at lower levels,” Dr. Laumbach says. However, he says, certain types of filters like those that use reverse osmosis, ion exchange, and larger activated carbon filters, may be more effective.
If you’re interested in buying a water filter to try to remove PFAS from your drinking water, Dr. Laumbach recommends searching for the product on the National Sanitation Foundation website—the company certifies water filters for PFAS removal.
What do experts think of this proposal?
John Rumpler, senior clean water director for Environment America, calls the proposal “an important first step towards protecting our drinking water from this class of toxic chemicals.”
Rumpler says the proposal is “incredibly significant” because it’s the first national limit on these six chemicals. “Several states have taken steps toward limiting these, but this would be the first national standard,” he says. “It follows the science that shows us these chemicals can harm our health at very low levels.”
Dr. Laumbach says the proposal is “much needed action to safeguard public health” but says more needs to happen to protect Americans. “Thousands of PFAS chemicals remain in commerce and more needs to be done to learn about the health and environmental risks from these chemicals, and to regulate these compounds to protect public health,” he says.
Rumpler agrees. “The only way we’re really going to ensure these limits are met is to get to the root of the problem and have industries move to safer alternatives,” he says.
You Might Also Like
