Health and Medicine
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Inefficient wastewater treatment may be exposing as many as 7 percent of people in the US to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – known as “forever chemicals” – in their drinking water, according to a new study.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.Examining the wastewater from eight large municipal wastewater treatment facilities, with sizes comparable to those serving 70 percent of the US population, researchers found that the treatment plants were removing less than 25 percent of these compounds before the water was discharged into the environment.
The study measured the presence of organofluorine compounds, which fall into two groups: PFAS, which are used in non-stick cookware, waterproof clothing, and food packaging; and fluorinated pharmaceuticals which are used in anti-inflammatory and antiviral medication.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals that have been widely used in industries and consumer products since the 1940s due to their resistance to water, heat, grease, and stains. However, the stable and resistant qualities of PFAS also earn them the title of “forever chemicals”, as they’re resistance to degradation, causing them to build up over time in both the environment and the human body.
Of the compounds identified in the study, 62 percent of the organofluorine in treated water and 75 percent in wastewater originated from commonly prescribed fluorinated pharmaceuticals.
"What's particularly troubling is that these fluorinated pharmaceuticals are designed to be biologically active at very low doses," lead author Bridger Ruyle, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at New York University, said in a statement. "We don't yet understand the public health implications of long-term exposure to these compounds through drinking water."
There are over 10,000 “forever chemicals”, and as of April 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that just six organofluorine compounds were now to be regulated in US drinking water. These six make up just 8 percent of all the extractable organofluorine found in wastewater.
"We've been focused on a small subset of these chemicals, but that's just the tip of the iceberg," Ruyle said. The study estimates that roughly 15 million people in the US are being exposed to PFAS above regulated levels in their drinking water, and that this number may increase to 23 million during droughts.
The proliferation of PFAS and fluorinated pharmaceuticals is becoming a major cause for concern as an increasing number of studies are showing the effects these chemicals are having both on human health and the environment.
“These results emphasize the importance of further curbing ongoing PFAS sources and additional evaluations of the fate and toxicity of fluorinated pharmaceuticals,” the study concludes.
This study is published in the journal PNAS.
