Are you aware of toxic substances in your drinking water? What is toxic, and how concerned are we about the safety of our food and water supply?
I think it’s no exaggeration to say that most ordinary people have never read or heard of toxic chemicals known as per-and polyfluoroalky substances (PFAS).
In my opinion, in the year 2020, Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic, the United States of America (USA) President’s impeachment and the General Election news, diverted the social and news media, the United States (US) Congress, and its respective agencies from the major environmental issues, not only in the USA but also throughout the world.
You may be asking yourself what, PFAS are?
PFAS are a group of complex man-made chemicals that include perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), GenX, and many other chemicals. It has been estimated that the PFAS family may include approximately 5,000 to 10,000 chemicals (USEPA).
In the scientific community and Environmental Consulting Industry, we identified these chemicals as “emerging contaminants,” and the public attention to PFAS is new, but the chemicals have been manufactured and used worldwide since the 1940s.
Are PFAS dangerous, or are there any health effects of PFAS?
According to the agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), high levels of certain PFAS lead to:
- Increased cholesterol levels;
- Changes in liver enzymes;
- Small decreases in infant birth weights; and
- Increase the risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.
Other published articles related to PFAS stated that the medical harm associated with these chemicals include;
- Impaired fertility;
- Impaired fetal development;
- Chronic intestinal inflammation;
- Asthma;
- Early menopause;
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); and
- Colon ulcers
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), four PFAS [(i.e., PFOA, PFOS, perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA)] found in the blood serum of nearly all of the people tested, indicating widespread exposure to these PFAS in the U.S. population.
You may wonder as to what products contain PFAS?
PFAS have unique physical and chemical properties. As a result, PFAS have been used in coating for textiles, paper products, cookware such as nonstick pans, and to formulae firefighting foams, applications in the aerospace, photographic imaging, semiconductors, automotive, construction, electronics, and aviation industries (USEPA 2017b)
PAFS are also used in food packaging such as microwave popcorn bags and fast-food wrappers, including waterproof jackets, and stain-resistant carpets, rugs, furniture, and outdoor gear with a durable water repellent coating, etc..
The HuffPost reported that even our personal care products like eyeliners, sunscreen, shampoo, and shaving cream can contain PFAS.
Some PFAS like perfluoroalkyl acids( PFAAs), such as perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) and perfluorooactane sulfonate (PFOS) are mobile, persistent and bio-accumulative and are not known to degrade in the environment (USEP 2003b; ATSDR 2015; NTP 2016; Concawe 2016).
PFSA are not currently known to be broken down by natural processes, they could persist in the environment indefinitely; therefore, they earned the nickname as “forever chemicals.”
As such, PFAS easily migrate in the environment and cause contamination of soil, sediment, groundwater, and surface water.
As a result, in recent years, environmental professionals, especially groundwater experts like me, are faced with the biggest challenge in our profession in identifying and remediating these complex chemical contaminants.
You may also wonder as to how are we exposed to these chemicals?
Drinking water is one of the most common routes of exposure to PFAS. PFAS enter drinking water through run-off or leaching from contaminated solids from wastewater treatment plants, firefighting foam used at commercial airports, industrial sites, and military bases.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA’S) Unregulated Contaminated Monitoring Rule (UCMR) program, approximately six million residents of the US had drinking water concentrations of PFOA or PFOS, or both, above the USEPA’S Lifetime Health Advisory (LHA) of 70 nanograms per liter (ng/L, equivalent to parts per trillion (PPT).
PFAS are not only present in the drinking water, but also in our food supply due to leaching from packaging, fish ingesting contaminated water, and irrigating vegetables with contaminated water.
Even workers involved in production or processing PFAS and its containing materials may be exposed by inhaling or absorbing it through their skin.
Last but not least, infants and toddlers may ingest PFAS from hand to mouth transfer from surfaces treated with PFAS-containing strain protectants such as carpet or rugs.
Due to substantiated health risks, environmental concentrations of concern (CoCs) currently reach as low as the parts per trillion (ppt), or nonograms per liter (ng/L) range.
Given the nature of complexity, at present, limited toxicity data is available for the remainder of more than 4,700 PFAS compounds.
As we can see that PFAS are harmful and we need to protect ourselves from them. As indicated above, PFAS don’t break down by natural processes, and they can persist in our body and in the environment for decades.
In my next posts, I will provide additional updated information about PFAS.