Tag Archives: PFAS

Daily Mail reveals how Forever Chemicals are affecting everyone and it’s not being talked about

USA-PFAS

Important Takeaways:

  • The Great Forever Chemical Cover-up: Most studies that link PFAS to serious health problems ‘are flying under the radar’, scientists warn – amid growing evidence manufacturers suppressed true dangers of toxins
  • A small fraction of the most compelling evidence pointing to the harms posed by forever chemicals, including birth defects and elevated cancer risk, gets the public attention it deserves.
  • Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have been lurking in drinking water and the air we breathe for decades. A product of large-scale manufacturing and industry, the substances will persist for at least that long due to the glacial pace at which they degrade in the environment.
  • The so-called ‘forever chemicals’ remain in the bloodstream and organs for years at a time before clearing out of the body via urination, and because the chemicals are ever-present in daily life
  • 10 cities and counties identified in a report by the Environmental Working Group as having the highest level of PFAS in drinking water.
    • They were: Brunswick County, NC; Quad Cities, Iowa; Miami, FL.; Bergen County, NJ; Wilmington, NC; Philadelphia, PA.; Louisville, KY; New Orleans, LA; Charleston, SC; and Decatur, AL.
  • A CDC report estimated that 97 percent of Americans have PFAS in their blood.

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Forever Chemicals are everywhere affecting 140 industries, and at least 45% of drinking water

Forever-Chemicals

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Forever’ Chemicals Are Nearly Everywhere. These Companies Are Helping Clean Up the Mess
  • The planet has a problem with “forever” chemicals. Known as PFAS, the chemicals are everywhere—from our nonstick cookware to our waterproof clothes, and smartphones. The chemicals are even in our drinking water and bloodstreams, and have been linked to increased risk of cancer in humans, among other issues.
  • “PFAS touches so many sectors,” says Dimple Gosai, clean tech analyst and head of U.S. ESG research at BofA Securities. The chemicals are pervasive in consumer apparel and food packaging, she notes, and are having an impact on insurers, industrial companies, and water utilities. “It’s a risk I think everyone needs to care about.”
  • More than 9,800 lawsuits alleging harm from PFAS have been launched across 140 industries since 1999, leading to $16.7 billion in settlements, according to a recent report from risk consultancy Milliman.
  • Contaminated water is a growing concern. According to a 2023 study by the U.S. Geological Survey, at least 45% of tap water is estimated to have one or more types of PFAS

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PFAS, Forever Chemicals could be in your water

Tap-Water

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘Forever chemicals’ could be in nearly half of U.S. tap water, a federal study finds
  • At least 45% of the nation’s tap water could be contaminated with at least one form of PFAS known as “forever chemicals,” according to a newly released study by the U.S. Geological Survey.
  • The man-made chemicals — of which there are thousands — are found in all sorts of places, from nonstick cookware to stain-resistant carpets to contaminated sources of food and water. They break down very slowly, building up in people, animals and the environment over time.
  • Research has linked exposure to certain PFAS to adverse health effects in humans, from an increased risk of certain cancers, increased obesity and high cholesterol risk, decreased fertility and developmental effects like low birth weight in children.
  • USGS scientists estimate there’s a 75% chance that PFAS will be found in urban areas and a 25% chance in rural areas. And the study suggests that exposure may be more common in certain geographical regions.
  • “Results from this study indicate potential hotspots include the Great Plains, Great Lakes, Eastern Seaboard, and Central/Southern California regions,” Smalling said.
  • What can be done?
  • You could also install specific kinds of water filters that are certified to lower the levels of PFAS in water, using technologies like activated carbon treatment and reverse osmosis.
  • Meanwhile, there are federal efforts underway to limit forever chemicals in drinking water.

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U.S. drinking water widely contaminated with ‘forever chemicals’: environment watchdog

By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The contamination of U.S. drinking water with man-made “forever chemicals” is far worse than previously estimated with some of the highest levels found in Miami, Philadelphia and New Orleans, said a report on Wednesday by an environmental watchdog group.

The chemicals, resistant to breaking down in the environment, are known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Some have been linked to cancers, liver damage, low birth weight and other health problems.

The findings by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) show the group’s previous estimate in 2018, based on unpublished U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data, that 110 million Americans may be contaminated with PFAS, could be far too low.

“It’s nearly impossible to avoid contaminated drinking water from these chemicals,” said David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG and co-author of the report.

The chemicals were used in products like Teflon and Scotchguard and in firefighting foam. Some are used in a variety of other products and industrial processes, and their replacements also pose risks.

Of tap water samples taken by EWG from 44 sites in 31 states and Washington D.C., only one location, Meridian, Mississippi, which relies on 700 foot (215 m) deep wells, had no detectable PFAS. Only Seattle and Tuscaloosa, Alabama had levels below 1 part per trillion (PPT), the limit EWG recommends.

In addition, EWG found that on average six to seven PFAS compounds were found at the tested sites, and the effects on health of the mixtures are little understood. “Everyone’s really exposed to a toxic soup of these PFAS chemicals,” Andrews said.

In 34 places where EWG’s tests found PFAS, contamination had not been publicly reported by the EPA or state environmental agencies.

The EPA has known since at least 2001 about the problem of PFAS in drinking water but has so far failed to set an enforceable, nationwide legal limit. The EPA said early last year it would begin the process to set limits on two of the chemicals, PFOA and PFOS.

The EPA said it has helped states and communities address PFAS and that it is working to put limits on the two main chemicals but did not give a timeline.

In 2018 a draft report from an office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said the risk level for exposure to the chemicals should be up to 10 times lower than the 70 PPT threshold the EPA recommends. The White House and the EPA had tried to stop the report from being published.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Arsenic, lead, PFAS chemicals; A toxic brew is being found in our drinking water and it’s getting worse.

Water in glass, Clean drinking water

By Kami Klein

Water…we are all taught from an early age that drinking water is a must for our body to remain hydrated and flush out the bad stuff.  Health authorities commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses, which equals about 2 liters, or half a gallon per day. The American people seem to be getting the message and are drinking more water than ever before. but reports and studies recently released are creating increasing alarm about the many dangerous chemicals that we are consuming with every drop. Americans get drinking water from private wells, tap water from public water treatment plants and in buying bottled water. Many concerned consumers are urging scientists for in-depth analysis of the health risks for each.  

Groundwater contamination

The United States Geological Survey says that about 44 million people in the U.S. get their drinking water from private wells. Surveys show about half of those have their wells tested at least once a year.  When flooding occurs, such as in this spring’s historic storms, thousands can be exposed to a dangerous mix of materials in their water.

Many in the Midwest that are affected rely on groundwater for rural and small municipal water supply. Household, farm, and small business wells situated in broad, sand and gravel valleys and glaciated rolling countryside could be standing in water for several days, raising the potential for contamination if the wells aren’t properly maintained. Exposure to E. coli, coliform, and other pathogenic microbes from human and animal fecal matter in floodwaters is a common health concern following a major flooding event.

But there is a growing problem in many states that has nothing to do with flooding.   And that is from a natural substance found in our soil…Arsenic.

Though arsenic can be found in the air and soil, the World Health Organization says the greatest threat to public health globally comes from groundwater, which is contaminated as it flows through rocks and minerals containing arsenic and resides in wells and tributaries.  

In a recent study published by the American Heart Association Journal, the dangers of increased and prolonged exposure to arsenic in water and in some food such as rice are becoming more evident. The study found that young adults free of diabetes and cardiovascular disease developed heart damage after only five years of exposure to low-to-moderate levels of arsenic commonly found in groundwater. Arsenic has also been linked to various cancers, kidney damage, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

“It is important for the general public to be aware that arsenic can be a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the study’s lead author, Dr. Gernot Pichler said. “Private wells are currently not regulated and people using private wells, including children and young adults, are not protected.”

Millions Exposed to PFAS chemicals

In a recent report by the non-profit Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University, it has been found that people in nearly every state in the U.S. are exposed to unhealthy drinking water both in private wells and through public water systems. According to researchers, 43 states have locations, including drinking water sites, contaminated with PFAS chemicals

Taken from Pentagon data and water utility reports the study shows an estimated 19 million people are exposed to contaminated water. PFAS, are synthetic chemicals found in many products, including food packaging, household cleaners and nonstick cookware, according to the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency

In an interview with CBSN, David Andrews, a senior scientist for the Environmental Working Group said, “This should be frightening to all Americans in many ways. these chemicals… don’t break down in our body and they don’t break down in our environment and they actually stick to our blood. So levels tend to increase over time.”

The EPA stated in March 2019 that 92 percent of the water used every day by Americans meets all of the EPA requirements for safe drinking water.  According to Andrews, the EPA  has not set a new legal drinking water limit for any contaminant in over two decades. And feels that the whole system of regulating chemicals that may end up in our water is broken.  “The agency is really falling behind the science here.”

But let’s say that the EPA is correct and do the math on their claims. Nationwide, 327 million Americans each drink two to eight glasses of water on average every day. If 8 percent of that supply doesn’t meet EPA standards, that’s up to 209 million unsafe glasses of water per day, or 2.3 billion gallons of water—enough to fill a quarter of a million bathtubs. In short, high compliance numbers do not mean everything is fine.

In May 2019, Representatives from both parties of Congress released a half-dozen bills in response to PFAS contamination. The bills range from providing more funding for communities tasked with the cost of treating contaminated water to increasing transparency in reporting chemical flows and prohibitions on products with PFAS.

But as many consumer groups have stated, the damage is there and many feel that it would take decades to fix this ever-increasing problem.  

Filtered is Best

Many have turned to bottled water as a safer alternative. In fact, Americans consume more than 8.6 gallons of bottled water each year.  Studies on the health risks of bottled water have shown that plastic these bottles are made of and can basically leak into the water.

BPA, a component often found in plastic, is a hormone disruptor that can have a wide range of impacts on the human body, including hormone imbalance, toxicity, inflammation, and even cancer.  BPA isn’t even the only component of plastic that is potentially dangerous—there are dozens of other chemicals that can have adverse effects on the body, endocrine system, and other organs.

What is the solution?  How do we keep our family from toxic chemicals?  How do we know our water is safe?

The best solution is to filter your water.  Bottled water, which many believe is the best alternative is costly.  A good filtering system can save you money and remove ALL of the chemicals used to treat water as well as those that are leaking into our water systems.  

There are many advances in the past decade of filtering systems that remove more than 99 percent of pathogens, bacteria, lead and more.

The light on the problems with our water quality are becoming brighter by the day. In the meantime, we must tackle the problem with common sense and safety in mind.  A filtering system for your drinking water is what makes the most sense for YOUR health and for your family.

 

There are many water filtration systems out there.  Morningside highly recommends Seychelle products.  

References for this Article: Newsweek, CNN, CBS, Agency for Toxic Substances, National Groundwater Association, Livescience.com, World Health Organization,

Is your tap water safe to drink? Is bottled water the best option?

Water in glass, Clean drinking water

By Kami Klein

According to a report by the National Resources Defense Council, there is nearly a 1 in 4 chance that your tap water is either unsafe to drink or is not being monitored for contaminants according to Federal law. Do we really know what is in our water when we drink it?   Most people want to have faith in the laws and the standards that are set for our cities but what is being discovered, in many areas, are that those standards are not being met nor are they being brought to the attention of the public.  

We hear warnings from media reports which has resulted in many of us turning to bottled water “to be safe”. According to the  “Ban the bottle” website, American’s consumed over 50 billion water bottles this past year. Unfortunately, in a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council, one-third of the bottles tested in a thousand various brands contained significant contamination with levels of chemical or bacterial contaminants exceeding those allowed under a state or industry standard or guideline.

We must have water to survive.  We assume since we pay for our water that it will be safe for our consumption and for our families. We are told by doctors and nutritionists that it is imperative to have enough water in our bodies to remain healthy and we are told to stay away from beverages loaded with sugar and chemicals. We must come to understand that filtering our water for contaminants is not just a “to be on the safe side” move, but an imperative and proactive one.   

In July, CNN reported on another case of severe contamination of PFAS in a Michigan city water well. PFAS, and /or polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a family of more than 4,000 synthetic chemicals that degrade very slowly, if at all, in the environment. Some of the best-known chemicals are PFOS, PFOA, and GenX. In a Facebook post by the city of Parchment, Michigan, city officials warned residents that testing had found that the water contained 1400 ppt with the acceptable limit being 70 ppt. They strongly advised people to boil their water or use bottled water. No one was sure how long people had been exposed to this high level of contaminants or of the health problems that eventually may go with it.  That means that children were drinking the water, babies, whose formula was mixed with the water and all adults in that town were exposed to a very toxic mix of poison when using the city water supply.

In other evidence gathered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from samples of more than 60,000 water systems in all 50 states between 2013 and 2015, samples show that the tap water of 218 million Americans contains high levels of chromium 6. In fact, this carcinogen turned up in as much as two-thirds of our nation’s water supply! These high levels of chromium 6 were deemed unsafe by public health officials. Oklahoma, Arizona, and California had the highest average statewide levels of the chemical found in their drinking supply. This was the poison in the water that got Erin Brockovich upset enough to take on huge corporations in the attempt to clean it up and help families who suffered from cancer and other disease stemming from the groundwater becoming contaminated.

 Last year another report showed that nearly 3,000 areas in the U.S. have lead poisoning rates that are at least double of those in Flint, Michigan during the absolute peak of the city’s lead crisis.

Many local water treatment plants, especially those in small, poor and minority communities, can’t afford the equipment necessary to filter out contaminants. Those can include arsenic found naturally in rock, chemicals from factories and nitrates and fecal matter from farming. In addition, much of the country’s aging distribution pipes delivering the water to millions of people are susceptible to lead contamination, leaks, breaks and bacterial growth.

We are now at a time in all cities and in all states that we can no longer depend on a safe supply of drinking water. The government can try, but with aging water systems and so many cities needing to update, to be absolutely certain your water is safe to drink now demands a filtration system.  With several affordable options on the market, a way to filter your water should be as common as a microwave in your kitchen and in the end much more cost effective than bottled water that may or may not contain harmful bacteria or chemicals.

Water is life.  There is no doubt about that. With so much new information that continues to be revealed about our drinking supply, taking heed and filtering your water is the only responsible action we can take.  Your good health depends on it!

Seychelle filtration products

Toxic chemicals in drinking water for six million Americans

By Lisa Rapaport

(Reuters Health) – Drinking water supplies for more than six million Americans contain unsafe levels of industrial chemicals that have been linked to cancer and other serious health problems, a U.S. study suggests.

The chemicals – known as PFASs (for polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances) – are used in products ranging from food wrappers to clothing to nonstick cookware to fire-fighting foams. They have been linked with an increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers, hormone disruption, high cholesterol, and obesity.

“PFASs are a group of persistent man made chemicals that have been in use since 60 years ago,” said lead study author Xindi Hu, a public health and engineering researcher at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Once these chemicals get into the water, they’re hard to get out, Hu added by email. “Most current wastewater treatment processes do not effectively remove PFASs,”

The problem may be much more widespread than the current study findings suggest because researchers lacked data on drinking water from smaller public water systems and private wells that serve about one-third of the U.S. population – about 100 million people, Hu noted.

To assess how many people may be exposed to PFASs in drinking water supplies, researchers looked at concentrations of six types of these chemicals in more than 36,000 water samples collected nationwide by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from 2013-2015.

They also looked at industrial sites that manufacture or use PFASs, military training sites and civilian airports where fire-fighting foam containing PFASs is used; and at wastewater treatment plants.

Discharges from these plants—which are unable to remove PFASs from wastewater by standard treatment methods—could contaminate groundwater, researchers note in the journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters. So could the sludge that the plants generate and which is frequently used as fertilizer.

The study found that PFASs were detectable at the minimum reporting levels required by the EPA in 194 out of 4,864 water supplies in 33 states across the U.S.

Drinking water from 13 states accounted for 75 percent of the unsafe supply, led by California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and Illinois.

Sixty-six of the public water supplies examined, serving six million people, had at least one water sample that measured at or above what the EPA considers safe for human consumption.

The highest levels of PFASs were detected near industrial sites, military bases, and wastewater treatment plants—all places where these chemicals may be used or found.

One limitation of the study is that researchers lacked data on how long people lived in areas supplied by contaminated water or how much of this water people actually drank, the authors note. The risk of many health problems linked to the chemicals is associated with long-term exposure.

A second Harvard study from one of the co-authors on the paper, Philippe Grandjean, focused on a new potential health problem tied to PFASs.

Grandjean and colleagues studied nearly 600 adolescents from the Faroe Islands, an island country off the coast of Denmark, who received vaccines to protect against diphtheria and tetanus.

The subset of these teens exposed to PFASs at a young age had lower-than-expected levels of antibodies against diphtheria and tetanus despite receiving vaccinations, according to the study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

This suggests that PFASs, which are known to interfere with immune function, may be involved in reducing the effectiveness of vaccines in children, the authors conclude.

Previous research has found lower responses to vaccinations at ages 5 and 7 with exposure to the chemicals, Grandjean said by email. The current study in teens suggests that the problem persists as children get older.

“So the negative effects on immune functions appear to be lasting,” Grandjean said. “Sadly, there is very little that an exposed resident can do, once the exposure has led to an increased amount of PFASs in the body.”

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2aPdBat Environmental Science and Technology Letters and http://bit.ly/2bcj8cf Environmental Health Perspectives, both online August 9, 2016.