Cancer-causing chemicals found in drinking water of 6M Americans

Millions of Americans are exposed to unsafe levels of risky chemicals in their drinking water that may trigger a host of health problems, researchers report.

Seventy-five percent of the contaminated water they found came from 13 states: California, New Jersey, North Carolina, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts and IL.

Hu’s colleague and senior author of the study, Elsie Sunderland, an associate professor at both the Harvard Chan School and SEAS noted the seriousness of the drinking water study, according to CBS News.

The biggest concern is that the sixty-six water supplies with unsafe levels of PFASs provide drinking water to six million people.

Unless people have their water tested, they have no idea whether they are being exposed to high levels of PFASs, Hu said.

The accumulative nature of PFASs remaining in the body for long periods can lead to adverse health effects.

Unfortunately, there is not much that people can do to reduce their exposure to PFAS, since it persists in the environment and in the water supply. The goal should be to keep these chemicals out of the water in the first place.

In some water supplies, the chemical concentrations were found to be significantly higher than the safety limit: close to five times higher than the safety limit for PFOA in Warminster, Pennsylvania, and 25 times higher for PFOS in Newark, Delaware.

What do you think of the news that two-thirds of the nation’s water is contaminated with chemicals?

The study was published Tuesday in Environmental Science & Technology Letters.

Harvard researchers analyzed national data from the Environmental Protection Agency and looked at concentrations of six types of chemicals – PFAs – in water samples collected between 2013-15.

PFASs are also widely used in fire-fighting foam and some industrial processes.

The study linked the contaminants to industrial sites, military fire training areas and wastewater treatment plants. These plants, which can’t remove PFASs by standard treatment methods, could contaminate groundwater, the researchers explained.

C8, which is also known as perfluorooctanoate acid, or PFOA, was made and used at DuPont’s Washington Works plant south of Parkersburg as a processing agent to make Teflon and other nonstick products, oil-resistant paper packaging and stain-resistant textiles. Three-quarters of those were in just 13 states: California, New Jersey, North Caroline, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Arizona, Massachusetts, and IL.

The study found that polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) – exceed federally recommended safety levels in public drinking-water supplies for 6 million people in the United States. Not surprisingly, when the authors examined the locations with the highest levels of PFAS in the water supply, these were watersheds near military bases, industrial sites, and wastewater treatment plants that may be releasing these chemicals into the environment. That study looked at a group of about 600 adolescents from the Faroe Islands, an island country off the coast of Denmark.

“Only about 10 percent of community water systems in the USA have been tested for these compounds”, said Erik Olson, director of the health program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Now we are facing the severe outcome of having to fix the problem”.

Even at low levels, exposure to PFASs can be potentially harmful, Olsen added.

Bergen had the most samples in which the compound was found, while samples from Atlantic showed the highest readings and Ocean showed the lowest readings.

Even if you know your water is contaminated with PFASs, there is little you can do, he said. PFAs used at these sites somehow found their way into the nearby water supply.