PFAS “Forever Chemicals” are ubiquitous in water around the world, study finds
A global survey found harmful levels even in water samples taken far from any obvious sources of contamination.
They are present in makeup, dental floss and menstrual products. They're in non-stick pans and takeout packages. Same with rain jackets and firefighting equipment, as well as pesticides and artificial turf on sports fields.
It's about of PFAS: a class of man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are also called "forever chemicals" because the bonds in their chemical compounds are so strong that they do not break down for hundreds or even thousands of years, if at all.
They are also present in our water.
A new study of more than 45,000 water samples around the world found that approximately 31% of the groundwater samples analyzed were not close to groundwater. The obvious source of contamination had levels of PFAS considered harmful to human health by the Environmental Protection Agency.
About 16% of surface water samples tested, which were also not near a known source, had similarly dangerous levels of PFAS .
This discovery "sets alarm bells", said Denis O'Carroll, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales and one of the authors of the study, published Monday in Nature Geoscience. . “Not just for PFAS, but for all the other chemicals we release into the environment. We don't necessarily know their long-term impacts on us or the ecosystem. damage to the immune system, hypertension and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, as well as kidney and testicular cancer.
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A global survey found harmful levels even in water samples taken far from any obvious sources of contamination.
They are present in makeup, dental floss and menstrual products. They're in non-stick pans and takeout packages. Same with rain jackets and firefighting equipment, as well as pesticides and artificial turf on sports fields.
It's about of PFAS: a class of man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They are also called "forever chemicals" because the bonds in their chemical compounds are so strong that they do not break down for hundreds or even thousands of years, if at all.
They are also present in our water.
A new study of more than 45,000 water samples around the world found that approximately 31% of the groundwater samples analyzed were not close to groundwater. The obvious source of contamination had levels of PFAS considered harmful to human health by the Environmental Protection Agency.
About 16% of surface water samples tested, which were also not near a known source, had similarly dangerous levels of PFAS .
This discovery "sets alarm bells", said Denis O'Carroll, professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New South Wales and one of the authors of the study, published Monday in Nature Geoscience. . “Not just for PFAS, but for all the other chemicals we release into the environment. We don't necessarily know their long-term impacts on us or the ecosystem. damage to the immune system, hypertension and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, as well as kidney and testicular cancer.
We are having difficulty retrieving article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode, please exit and log in to your Times account, or subscribe to the entire Times.
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