Month: February 2020

PFAS is a class of more than 4,000 different chemicals. PFAS is created by joining carbon and fluorine. The most commonly used PFAS chemicals have long half-lives, that is why they are called the ‘forever chemical’. A Harvard data scientist, Cindy Hu, was part of a research team, EWG, that had found that at least six million Americans were drinking tap water contaminated with PFAS, chemicals PFOS and PFOA, that exceeded EPA recommendations. “The EPA has a health advisory for the two chemicals, saying that they shouldn’t exceed 70 parts per trillion (ppt) in drinking supplies.” (Gibbins, 2020). The advisory that they put out is a way of them saying this shouldn’t be in drinking water, but there is no enforcement that follows up on it. The EWG put out a much lower limit saying that any tap water that exceeds 1 ppt could be potentially harmful. The limit they put out was based on studies that were done on humans and rodents. Hu disagreed with their findings saying that they should have looked into the specific chemicals like PFOA and PFOS, due to the fact that scientists haven’t determined whether to regulate PFAS as an entire class or on the individual chemicals. After a lawsuit case against a manufacturing plant by a local farmer, the CDC did some investigating into PFAS chemicals and found that 14 of them have a link to cancer, birth defects, thyroid disease, and liver damage, other chemicals were linked to high cholesterol and nerve disorders. It has been found by regular testing that is conducted by the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, that PFAS chemicals are found in nearly all blood samples that they have taken. They have found that the replacements that have started being produced in the early 2000’s have also been linked to kidney damage, immune system impairment, and reproductive issues. David Andrews, who is a senior scientist at the EWG, is quoted saying “It’s a clear indication that the EPA and their ability to set clean drinking water standards is completely broken.” The article then goes on to explain that the EPA hasn’t listed any new chemicals in the Safe Drinking Water Act since 1996. Now many states have set their own guidelines for their drinking water and PFAS, and people are still waiting on the bill to pass so that there is a unified standard for all states.

This article shows that the writers as well as average people have a base of understanding towards the topic. In the end of that article, it said that states were setting their own guidelines, meaning that people’s eyes have been open to the harm that this group of chemicals could do to their citizens. The article had many sources and a lot of information to back up what they were saying. This was definitely not an opinions piece, there were sources from EWG themselves talking about this issue. I do think that the EPA setting a high ppt count for the PFAS chemicals was not the right move on their part. I do think that they should have done a lot of research and collected a lot more data and then came out with their ppt count, so that for one, it would be supported and two, it would have been the correct amount.

I never even knew that this issue was around. It should be talked about more and reported more. I think that if there have been reports of people getting seriously sick, the EPA should have done a lot of research and at least make it seem like they cared enough. The way that the article depicts what the EPA did makes it seem like they didn’t care enough or that they had other pressing matters to deal with. I think that there should be a lot more research into the chemicals and that the bill should be passed to put at least some of these chemicals under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Work Cited

Gibbins, Sarah. “Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ More Common in Tap Water than Thought, Report Says.” National Geographic, 24 Jan. 2020, www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/01/pfas-contamination-safe-drinking-water-study/.