Chemicals have been around for decades, but they aren’t the only ones extending their lifespan. Is their time running out?
The discovery of adverse health effects from permanent chemicals is almost as old as the invention of PFAS chemistry. Given the decades of research detailing the toxicity of these man-made materials to laboratory animals and humans, it would be safe to assume that man-made materials would have followed the same path as asbestos by now, but this has not been the case.
Chemicals will forever permeate the earth, making everyone’s lives unchecked. These synthetic compounds may be durable by design, but their chemical composition no longer has anything to do with their durability.
Suppliers keep lying
PFAS are generally inconspicuous and difficult to eliminate from society. Although authorities have done an excellent job of informing the public of the dangers, their usual exclusion from ingredient labels and material safety sheets reduces the effectiveness of awareness campaigns.
Even consumer goods companies with a focus on sustainability can inadvertently use permanent chemicals. Manufacturers of water-, heat-, and stain-resistant products should expect their facilities to be hot spots for PFAS exposure.
To avoid wasting resources, activist groups must rely on marketing terms such as nonstick, waterproof, oil-proof, and stain-proof to identify products potentially contaminated with PFAS for testing.
Fortunately, several important sources of PFAS contamination, such as PFOA, have been brought to public attention through high-profile lawsuits. A 2023 peer-reviewed study that analyzed 39 internal documents found that DuPont knew about the toxicity of PFOA as early as 1961, but never shared this information with outsiders.
A deeper understanding of PFOA’s concern as a health threat, and the fact that it is just one of approximately 15,000 PFAS chemicals around, shows that the true scale of the problem may be even worse.
Still, learning about the dangers of PFOA is a wake-up call for governments to ban products containing PFOA and for engineers to develop advanced water filtration solutions to capture PFOA.
Most chemicals will remain legal forever, but for now
PFAS has skyrocketed due to severe lack of regulation. Concern about chemicals has succeeded in keeping everyone in the dark about the unintended effects of these chemicals. DuPont and 3M, in particular, have taken cues from the tobacco industry’s strategy to hide evidence and influence public debate in their favor whenever possible.
Regulators are trying to play catch-up. Policymakers eager to act on forever chemicals are still determining how bad the situation is, determining how much PFAS is too much, which PFAS should be banned in which products, and assessing the economic impact.
The European Union has encouraged member states to permanently monitor how chemicals contaminate food from 2022 to 2025, and the European Food Safety Authority is working with stakeholders to carry out risk assessments.
It may take some time for the EU to modernize and tighten its PFAS regulations, but the UK is making progress. The UK government will ban water-based film-forming foam fire extinguishers and fire extinguishers using other materials containing PFOA from 4 July 2025, forcing business owners to adopt sustainable alternatives.
Across the pond, some U.S. state legislatures have enacted laws banning certain permanent chemicals.
In 2021, Maine passed a bill to outlaw PFAS in new consumer products by 2030. California, Colorado and Hawaii have permanently banned the chemical from cosmetics, food packaging, textiles and other products. Manufacturers are legally challenging such laws to avoid untold economic losses before they can fully invest in research and development to create more sustainable alternatives.
Public information on PFAS contamination is limited
In the absence of strict regulations targeting these synthetic compounds, monitoring of contaminated resources is minimal. A lack of data obscures the seriousness of PFAS contamination and makes this health and environmental issue seem less urgent than it needs to be.
2024 marked a turning point in the fight against eternal chemicals as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized the National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR). This covers PFOA, PFOS, PFHxS, PFNA, HFPO-DA, and mixtures containing two or more of the last three and PFBS. These guidelines establish maximum contamination levels that can be legally enforced by government agencies.
NPDWR requires permanent monitoring of specified chemicals in public water systems. The initial monitoring period will be for three years, after which ongoing compliance monitoring will begin.
By then, public water systems will have to release their findings to the public. The rule also requires residents and business owners to be notified if PFAS concentrations in drinking water exceed thresholds and take steps to reduce them to safer levels.
The agency believes this unprecedented action will protect approximately 100 million people from exposure to PFAS through drinking water, preventing serious illness and countless deaths.
Existing water filtration solutions are hit or miss
Purification and filtration processes can permanently remove chemicals from drinking water. Reverse osmosis (RO) supports the former, and activated carbon supports the latter.
The problem is that PFAS removal is highly specialized. Only some RO systems and water filters with activated carbon can permanently trap chemicals and only filter certain compounds.
Unfortunately, water purifiers and filters are at best rarely adequate, and at worst counterproductive. From June 2017 to March 2019, scientists at Duke University and North Carolina State University tested 76 point-of-use and 13 point-of-entry water filters optimized for permanent chemicals to verify their effectiveness.
Researchers have found that some RO and dual-stage POS products perform very well. At the same time, most POS inlet systems based on activated carbon water filtration removed some of the disinfectants used in municipal water treatment plants to increase PFAS levels and inhibit bacterial growth.
The Environmental Working Group conducted a small study published in 2023. The nonprofit evaluated 10 commercially available water filters for PFAS removal of 25 permanent chemicals using SimpleLab’s GenX and PFAS water tests. Three point-of-use products demonstrated 100% PFAS reduction, one recorded 98%, and the others removed 22% to 79% of contaminants from tap water.
The four best-performing pitcher water filters had drawbacks. Two had high initial costs, and one had a short filter life that required frequent replacement. The other was difficult to operate, especially for people with weak hands or upper body strength. They required pressure to be applied at the faucet, took more time to filter the water, and were complicated to maintain.
An effective water filtration device is a wise investment for businesses with wellness programs and sustainability goals. Spending big bucks on an independently tested, enterprise-grade system to remove most, if not all, of the notorious PFAS from your facility’s plumbing is sure to boost employee morale and create a positive reputation.
Gone are the days of using chemicals forever.
Resolving PFAS contamination is difficult, but not impossible. While those most guilty of creating and disseminating these toxic chemicals continue to deny wrongdoing, the regulatory landscape is changing for the better.
Scientists are just as engaged as policy makers. Researchers from various universities are developing new ways to permanently filter chemicals from water treatment plants and break them down at the molecular level.
Tomorrow cannot come any sooner, but in time, today’s experimental and emerging technologies will prove that even eternal chemicals are impermanent.
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