Almost half of all tap water sources in the US are laced with toxic ‘forever chemicals’, according to a major official study.
Experts said the findings were ‘frightening’ given the scale of the problem and the link between the toxins and cancer, fertility problems, birth defects and hormone issues.
In the most comprehensive study of its kind, researchers tested water sources across more than 700 locations across the country for PFAS, microscopic man-made chemicals that can take decades to break down in the body, hence the name ‘forever chemicals’.
They found that 45 percent of drinking water sources contained at least one PFAS – with highest concentrations in the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, the Eastern Seaboard and Central/Southern California.
The team’s testing was limited to 32 types of PFAS out of more than 12,000 types that exist, which US Geological Survey researchers said indicates that the problem is even larger.
The map compiled by the US Geological Survey shows the number of PFAS detections across a sprawling number of sites nationwide between 2016 and 2021
PFAS is a common contaminant in many household items from cookware to hamburger wrappers. It can remain in the environment as well as human tissue for years, even decades, before being cleared out
Researchers set out to determine levels of toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in water sources across 716 unique sites nationwide, including both urban and rural areas.
Over the course of five years spent collecting samples to detect PFAS levels, the team concluded that taps in urban centers were generally more laden with the forever chemicals than taps in rural parts of the country.
Everyday home products from frying pans to food packaging contain PFAS that leach into the water supply, and while contamination with the chemicals is a known problem, the latest sprawling study shows its alarming extent.
The main purpose of PFAS compounds is to repel water and oil, which is what makes non-stick cookware so much easier to clean and why certain jackets and tents can withstand rain.
PFAS can seep into the water supply by simply washing the dishes. The compounds can also seep into our food if the packaging is made to be greese-resitant – think fast food cheeseburgers – or if the non-stick coating on pots and pans begins to deteriorate.
PFAS are also common in pesticides used to feed crops, which produces chemical-rich runoff that can enter the drinking water supply.
Last year, Texas Tech University researchers examined 10 common insecticides being used on cotton fields, but can work for food and other crops.
They found PFAS in seven of the 10 insecticides, with levels of PFOS – which has been storgngly linked to cancer – as high as 19m parts per trillion (ppt) in one insecticide.
Most of the contamination was concentrated in densely populated urban areas, which the researchers concluded was due to increased industry and a greater number of waste sites overall, including manufacturing plants and landfills, which are known to generate PFAS.
And several distinct regions of the US had especially high concentrations of the poisonous compounds, including the Eastern seaboard and southern and central California, where many of the biggest cities are located.
They also detected elevated PFAS levels areas around the Great Lakes and in plains states. They did not offer an explanation as to why those particular areas, typically far from urban centers, showed such high levels of PFAS, though.
Researchers taking part in the study represented disparate parts of the country, such as New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Oregon, in order to get the most comprehensive results possible.
They sampled a total of 716 water sources including 447 that rely on public supplies and 269 using private wells.
While private wells are maintained by individuals or households on residential property, public water sources are owned by the state or local government which uses a centralized water treatment and distribution system.
The Geological Survey’s study conducted from 2016 to 2021 highlights the alarming extent of the problem that PFAS contamination poses.
About 270 million Americans rely on public sources for their drinking water, while another 40 million use private wells, and all of them could be affected.
The problem has received growing attention in recent years in part due to increased media attention, as well as advancing testing methods that can detect the chemicals in low levels in the environment and in people.
And an expanding body of research into the effects of PFAS exposure has driven home the fact that even low levels of the chemicals can prove toxic. Unfortunately, they are nearly everywhere, from non-stick cookware, fast food wrappers and popcorn bags, and stain removers, to cosmetics and firefighting foam.
The ‘forever chemicals’, nicknamed that because they break down in the environment incredibly slowly and can remain in the body for decades or even longer before being cleared.
Private and public water sources had similar concentrations of PFAS overall, although urban centers where private wells are less commonplace were found to be more densely contaminated than rural areas
Some varieties of PFAS have been shown to increase levels of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol that contributes to plaque buildup in the arteries, slowly blocking blood flow in the arteries which greatly increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, and stroke.
Prolonged exposure to PFAS – which is not out of the realm of possibility given its constant presence in homes – can severely damage the liver.
US government researchers concluded last year that when humans and rodents were exposed to the three common varieties of PFAS, they showed elevated levels of an enzyme called ALT, a marker of liver damage, in the blood.
PFAS also disrupts the delicate hormone balance that has profound effects on our mental and physical health. This includes sex hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone which, when tampered with, can impact reproductive health and fertility.
Women exposed to PFAS during pregnancy have higher risks of gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia, a type of high blood pressure. Babies exposed to the chemicals in utero, meanwhile, are at higher risk for low birth weight and increased risk of childhood obesity and infections down the line.
The disruption to normal hormone regulation can also lead to severe damage to the thyroid.
There is also some evidence that exposure over a long period of time can contribute to cancer risk, particularly in the kidneys and testicles.
The latest report signals that human involvement is a major if not the greatest contributor to the level of contamination detected in drinking water sources nationwide, which allows the chemicals to settle in the blood, liver, and kidneys.
In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that PFAS could be detected in the blood of about 98 percent of the US population.
The federal government has taken steps to intervene, most recently with the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to propose new, stronger restrictions on maximum permitted levels of the compounds in US drinking water.
The agency has not disclosed what those new limits would be and a final decision is not expected before 2024.
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