Water systems, manufacturers brace for limits on ‘forever’ chemicals

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2 thoughts on “Water systems, manufacturers brace for limits on ‘forever’ chemicals

  1. I’m in the water industry and the opinion of many folks is that regulating PFAS at these levels is completely unnecessary based on the science. There is no clear data indicating these compounds are harmful at these levels. This is going to spike water and sewer rates; the only beneficiaries are the tort attorneys and environmental profiteers seeking to exploit unnecessary fear. It is overall a shameful example of an EPA power grab.

    1. This take is understandable, but it fails to acknowledge the totality of circumstances.

      There are way too many PFAS chemicals to keep track of. It will take decades & decades to definitively determine whether each individual PFAS chemical causes meaningful health problems in humans. However, this is what we do know:

      All PFAS chemicals share a common motif that:

      -Allows them to accumulate in the environment in such a way that is really, really difficult to clean up.
      -Allows them to bioaccumulate in the food chain.
      -Allows them to bioaccumulate in sensitive human tissues.

      Further, we know that several PFAS not only accumulate in the environment, food chain, and in the human body, but that they are implicated in serious health problems.

      We can come up with novel PFAS faster than we can properly study their effects. As it stands, it will take decades to figure out which existing PFAS do & don’t cause health problems. In the mean time, they’re accumulating in our environment, food chain, and bodies. Once PFAS are in our bodies, there’s really no getting them out. We can barely remove PFAS from water, much less our organs.

      There’s basically no practical way to circle back after figuring out that a common PFAS was particularly dangerous & removing it from all effected people, food chains, & environments. Even if the companies responsible for the pollution were held fiscally responsible for the damage they caused, it would cost so much that it’d bankrupt them & those who saw damaged would never see proper compensation.

      There’s just too much risk to tolerate; it’s best to just heavily regulate PFAS chemicals completely.

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