President Joseph Biden's administration has introduced the first national drinking water standards to protect Americans from toxic "perpetual chemicals" that have been linked to serious health conditions from cancer to developmental problems in children.
Invisible and present in water, soil, air and food, perfluoroalkaline and polyfluoroalkaline substances (PFAS) accumulate in our body and never dissolve in the environment.
The new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule would reduce about 100 million people's exposure to PFAS chemicals in water, preventing thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of serious illnesses, the agency said.
"This is a huge victory for public health in the United States," Melanie Benes, who works on policy issues for the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG), told AFP.
"Getting those chemicals out of drinking water will reduce exposure, reduce the burden of disease and ultimately save lives."
The rule establishes limits for five individual types of PFAS present in drinking water. These include the contaminant PFOA, formerly used in Teflon pans, and PFOS, a substance used in clothing and carpet protective films (3M Scotchgard) and in fire extinguisher foams.
Specifically, the maximum level for those two chemicals is now four parts per trillion, or 4 ppt - far lower than, for example, Canada, where the limit for PFOA is 220 ppt, and 600 ppt for PFOS.
"I don't know of any stronger standards for protection against PFAS in drinking water anywhere in the world," says David Andrews, a scientist with the Environmental Working Group.
Eleven US states already had their own regulations for "permanent chemicals" in water, but the rest of the country did not.
The administration also announced it would set aside $1 billion in additional funding under the bipartisan Infrastructure Act to help municipalities fund systems to implement the new standards.
Health risk
The two most researched PFAS substances have already been banned or restricted in many countries, although they can still be found in the environment. In December, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), once used in Teflon non-stick pans, as "carcinogenic to humans." The World Health Organization says there is "sufficient evidence" that PFOA has caused cancer in animals in experiments, and that there is "limited evidence" of testicular cancer and renal cell carcinoma in humans.
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) - once a key ingredient in Scotchgard fabric protection - has been declared "possibly carcinogenic to humans". There is limited evidence of cancer in animals but "insufficient evidence relating to cancer in humans," the International Agency for Research on Cancer said.
Studies also suggest that exposure to PFAC chemicals is associated with higher rates of cancer, obesity, thyroid, liver and kidney disease, high cholesterol, low birth weight, sterility and even poorer response to vaccines. However, such observations cannot prove that chemicals directly cause these social problems.
The degree of risk varies significantly depending on people's level of exposure to PFAS - almost everyone on Earth is believed to have at least some PFAS in their bodies. According to the IARC, the greatest risk of serious exposure to PFAS substances lies with those who work directly with the chemicals in their work.
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