{"id":21409,"date":"2024-04-08T15:44:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T15:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/08\/pfas-forever-chemicals-are-pervasive-in-water-worldwide-study-finds\/"},"modified":"2024-04-08T15:44:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T15:44:09","slug":"pfas-forever-chemicals-are-pervasive-in-water-worldwide-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/08\/pfas-forever-chemicals-are-pervasive-in-water-worldwide-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"PFAS \u2018Forever Chemicals\u2019 Are Pervasive in Water Worldwide, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/08\/multimedia\/08CLI-GLOBAL-PFAS-jqhz\/08CLI-GLOBAL-PFAS-jqhz-facebookJumbo.jpg?fit=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"PFAS \u2018Forever Chemicals\u2019 Are Pervasive in Water Worldwide, Study Finds\" title=\"PFAS \u2018Forever Chemicals\u2019 Are Pervasive in Water Worldwide, Study Finds\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They\u2019re in makeup, dental floss and menstrual products. They\u2019re in nonstick pans and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/12\/us\/pfas-chemicals-fast-food.html\" title=\"\">takeout food wrappers<\/a>. Same with rain jackets and firefighting equipment, as well as pesticides and artificial turf on sports fields.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They\u2019re PFAS: a class of man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are also called \u201cforever chemicals\u201d because the bonds in their chemical compounds are so strong they don\u2019t break down for hundreds to thousands of years, if at all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They\u2019re also in our water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A new study of more than 45,000 water samples around the world found that about 31 percent of groundwater samples tested that weren\u2019t near any obvious source of contamination had PFAS levels considered harmful to human health by the Environmental Protection Agency. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">About 16 percent of surface water samples tested, which were also not near any known source, had similarly hazardous PFAS levels.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This finding \u201csets off alarm bells,\u201d said Denis O\u2019Carroll, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales and one of the authors of the study, which was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41561-024-01402-8\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">published on Monday in Nature Geoscience<\/a>. \u201cNot just for PFAS, but also for all the other chemicals that we put out into the environment. We don\u2019t necessarily know their long-term impacts to us or the ecosystem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">High levels of <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.atsdr.cdc.gov\/pfas\/health-effects\/index.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">exposure to some PFAS chemicals have been linked<\/a> to higher cholesterol, liver and immune system damage, hypertension and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, as well as kidney and testicular cancer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The E.P.A. <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/14\/climate\/epa-water-pfas-chemicals.html\" title=\"\">has proposed strict new drinking water limits<\/a> for six types of PFAS and could announce its final rule as early as this week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For their research, Dr. O\u2019Carroll and his colleagues gathered nearly 300 previously published studies on PFAS in the environment. Together, these studies included 12,000 samples from surface water \u2014 streams, rivers, ponds and lakes \u2014 and 33,900 samples from groundwater wells, collected over the past 20 years. These samples don\u2019t cover the whole planet: they are concentrated in places with more environmental researchers, like the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and the Pacific Coast of Asia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The samples are probably also concentrated in places where people were already concerned about PFAS contamination, Dr. O\u2019Carroll said. He cautioned that, as a result, the findings of this new study might be skewed to show higher levels of contamination than a true global average would. There\u2019s reason to believe, however, that there\u2019s some level of PFAS contamination nearly everywhere on the planet, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of the countries where studies had been done, the United States and Australia had particularly high concentrations of PFAS in their water samples.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Among the available samples, the highest levels of contamination were generally found near places like airports and military bases, which routinely use PFAS-containing foam to practice fighting fires. About 60 to 70 percent of both groundwater and surface water samples near these types of facilities had PFAS levels exceeding the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/system\/files\/documents\/2023-03\/FAQs_PFAS_States_NPDWR_Final_3.14.23_0.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">E.P.A. Hazard Index<\/a>, which measures how hazardous mixtures of certain chemicals might be to human health, and also exceeded limits in the E.P.A.\u2019s proposed new drinking water regulations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This research does an admirable job of collecting the available data and highlighting the extent of global contamination from PFAS chemicals, said David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization, who was not involved in this study.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Scientific research on the health effects of PFAS has evolved significantly in the past 10 to 20 years, he said, and what are considered safe exposure levels now are a tiny fraction of what they were a few decades ago.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The proposed E.P.A. drinking water rules, depending on their final language, will be a big step forward, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Michael Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, has said his agency intends to require utilities to treat their water so that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/14\/climate\/epa-water-pfas-chemicals.html\" title=\"\">levels of some PFAS are near zero<\/a>. This requirement would make the United States one of the strictest countries in terms of regulating PFAS in water.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Andrews added, however, that while treating drinking water is important, it doesn\u2019t solve the whole problem. His own research has shown that <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/22\/climate\/pfas-forever-chemicals-wildlife-animals.html\" title=\"\">PFAS chemicals are pervasive in wildlife<\/a>, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOnce they\u2019re released into the environment, it\u2019s incredibly difficult to clean them up, if not impossible in many cases,\u201d he said. \u201cThey can be removed from drinking water, but<em class=\"css-2fg4z9 e1gzwzxm0\"> <\/em>the ultimate solution is to not use them in the first place, especially in places where there are clear alternatives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For example, some outdoor clothing brands are moving away from PFAS for waterproofing their products and toward alternatives like silicones. Fast food restaurants can wrap their burgers in paper that\u2019s been treated with heat to make it grease-resistant, or coated in a PFAS-free plastic instead. The Department of Defense is beginning to replace traditional firefighting foam with an alternative called fluorine-free foam, or F3.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In the meantime, Dr. O\u2019Carroll said, \u201cI\u2019m not in any way trying to say that we should not be drinking water.\u201d<span class=\"css-8l6xbc evw5hdy0\">  <\/span>He added, \u201cIt\u2019s more that I\u2019m trying to say, from a societal point of view, we need to be careful what we put into the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/08\/climate\/pfas-forever-chemicals-water.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They\u2019re in makeup, dental floss and menstrual products. They\u2019re in nonstick pans and takeout food wrappers. Same with rain jackets and firefighting equipment, as well as pesticides and artificial turf on sports fields. They\u2019re PFAS: a class of man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are also called \u201cforever chemicals\u201d because the bonds in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/08\/multimedia\/08CLI-GLOBAL-PFAS-jqhz\/08CLI-GLOBAL-PFAS-jqhz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[130,2302,26975,26974,250,556,2599],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21411,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21409\/revisions\/21411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}