The EPA announced new drinking water health advisory levels today for the industrial chemicals PFOA and PFOS. The new levels — .07 parts per billion (ppb) for both chemicals — are significantly lower than standards the agency issued in 2009, which were .4 ppb for PFOA and .2 ppb for PFOS. In areas where both PFOA and PFOS are present, the advisory suggests a maximum combined level of .07 ppb. While the old levels were calculated based on the assumption that people were drinking the contaminants only for weeks or months, the new standards assume lifetime exposure and reflect more recent research.
The new federal standards may unify what has been an inconsistent official response to the presence of these perfluorinated chemicals, or PFCs, in drinking water. They will also instantaneously create official water contamination crises in dozens of cities and towns across the country.
According to the EPA’s most recent data on unregulated drinking water contaminants, released in January, 14 drinking water systems around the country reported levels of PFOA that exceed the new federal threshold, while 40 reported PFOS above the new cutoff. In all, water systems in 18 states, as well as in Guam, are contaminated.
Some of these water systems have already begun to quietly address the problem. In Suffolk County, New York, where public drinking water wells show PFOS levels of .33 and .53 ppb, the contaminated water “has either been blended with other wells to reduce the level of the compound to non-detection or their use has been limited to the greatest extent possible,” according to Kevin Durk, director of water quality and laboratory services for the Suffolk County Water Authority. Though he does not know the level of PFOS in the water that comes out of local taps, Durk wrote in an email that “it is a virtual certainty that levels of any detected chemical would have been reduced.”
Similarly, the Security Water and Sanitation District in Colorado Springs has been struggling to clean up its contaminated water since 142 tests detected PFCs. The district has shut down seven out of 26 wells and is blending water to lower levels, according to Roy Heald, the district’s general manager.
But other water company operators have yet to lower their PFC levels. Steve Anderson, owner of the Oatman Water Company in Scottsdale, Arizona, where PFOS measured .2 and .23 in the most recent EPA testing, learned that the chemical was in his water only recently, after he received a call from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Anderson, who suspects the PFOS originated from firefighting foam used by the nearby Oatman Fire Department, said he is “trying to come up with a solution.”
Until today, there was a wide range of official opinion on the level of contamination that presented a health danger. The military, which is in the throes of a massive cleanup of 664 contaminated fire- and crash-training sites, has been using the EPA’s older standards for PFOA and PFOS to guide its efforts and help determine who receives clean drinking water and remediation of contaminated private wells. (The Department of Defense did not responded to inquiries about how the new advisory levels would alter its cleanup plan.)
Others have set more stringent standards. On January 28, the EPA advised residents of Hoosick Falls, New York, not to use water with PFOA levels above .1 ppb. And a panel of scientists who spent years researching some 70,000 people whose water contained PFOA levels of at least .05 ppb, found probable links between that level of exposure and testicular cancer, kidney cancer, thyroid disease, preeclampsia, ulcerative colitis and high cholesterol. In 2010, New Jersey’s Drinking Water Quality Institute calculated a safety limit of .04 for PFOA. Vermont currently has the lowest state drinking water limit for PFOA, .02 ppb.
The EPA report noted that in humans “the developing fetus and newborn is particularly sensitive to PFOA-induced toxicity.”
The levels released today are based on numerous studies connecting the chemicals with health effects. For PFOS, the report notes, studies of lab animals exposed to the chemical reported “developmental effects (decreased body weight, survival, and increased serum glucose levels and insulin resistance in adult offspring), reproductive (mating behavior), liver toxicity (liver weight co-occurring with decreased cholesterol, hepatic steatosis), developmental neurotoxicity (altered spatial learning and memory), immune effects, and cancer (thyroid and liver).”
The report also acknowledged research on human populations that has found associations between PFOS and immune suppression, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, and reduced fertility. It also acknowledged a possible connection between PFOS and bladder, colon, and prostate cancer.
For PFOA, the research included studies on monkeys, rats, and mice showing “developmental effects (survival, body weight changes, reduced ossification, delays in eye opening, altered puberty, and retarded mammary gland development), liver toxicity (hypertrophy, necrosis, and effects on the metabolism and deposition of dietary lipids), kidney toxicity (weight), immune effects, and cancer (liver, testicular, and pancreatic).”
The new health advisory for PFOA was also based on human studies, which showed “associations between PFOA exposure and high cholesterol, increased liver enzymes, decreased vaccination response, thyroid disorders, pregnancy-induced hypertension and preeclampsia, and cancer (testicular and kidney).” The EPA report noted that in humans “the developing fetus and newborn is particularly sensitive to PFOA-induced toxicity.”
“Taken together,” the report notes, “the weight of evidence for human studies supports the conclusion that PFOA exposure is a human health hazard.” The exact phrasing was used in the PFOS report as well.
While calling the new level “a very long-overdue step in the right direction,” Robert Bilott, an attorney overseeing a class-action suit over PFOA contamination near a DuPont plant in West Virginia, cautioned that “the new guideline is still too high, as exposures at even the new guideline level would allow PFOA to continue to build up to ever-increasing, unacceptable levels in human blood.”
Bilott also noted that the new levels are informal guidelines, as opposed to enforceable regulatory limits. “If it was enforceable,” he said, “the EPA could issue unilateral orders requiring the responsible party to clean it up.”
Updated May 19, 2016:
After this piece was published a spokesperson for the Department of Defense wrote in an email that “DoD will use the EPA’s new Health Advisory levels to determine risk to human health from past contamination. DoD’s approach is comprehensive and designed to identify where we have had releases of PFOA or PFOS and to determine if the release has impacted drinking water above the Environmental Protection Agency’s Health Advisory level. Where that has happened DoD will work closely with the regulatory agencies and the local community to provide alternative drinking water supplies.”
Related:
Perfluorinated chemicals in our municipal potable water systems – Jeezuz A Christ!
This can include lead, too, and who knows what else is leaching into our polluted environment in thousands of municipal,”crumbling” world urban centers. (Senator Sanders repeats this fact in his numerous ongoing campaign speeches). Another horrendous fact omitted from corporate media (for probably real, rather than paranoid reasoning), is that populations would immediately revolt if they knew that nano-particle contaminates of transuranic metallic radionuclides are ubiquitously and invisibly, ringing our world atmosphere – accumulating by the tons, annually, since nuclear fission-producing energy was first declared (by the criminal business establishment. i.e. “banksters”) “so cheap it’s almost free”! (And the resulting millions of tons of still fissioning , so-called “spent” fuel, stored on site for 450+ huge, commercial, nuke reactors and the 50 or so already “decommissioned”), located at a hundred or so sites, worldwide.
This article got me going. So, I’ll stop. This insanity of “throw away” consumerism IS A FRAUD. Mind boggling for the love of god, let’s hope we wake up!
“The EPA report noted that in humans “the developing fetus and newborn is particularly sensitive to PFOA-induced toxicity.””
Fetuses schmetuses. It’s OK to poison them to save money, because that increases profits. Also, America!
Just don’t take money to murder them for selfish liberal reasons.
I was instrumental in having a dust suppressant with Teflon removed from use due to presenting the information about it breaking down to PFOA when exposed to high temperature.
This was so long ago the information was on a floppy disk.
Everywhere fire fighting foam has been used there is contamination and clean up is very difficult as the chemical does not decay.
It is not suddenly unsafe. It has always been unsafe. They just suddenly have to do something about it. The EPA has done as little as possible until recently forced to. It has been the least active in its history during the Obama administration. Not my opinion but there own statistics on how many chemicals they have researched in the past 8 years.
The cynic in me wonders if the announcement of the change in standards was delayed (or the PR stunt moved up) so that Obama’s public drinking of a glass of (aftermarket filtered) Flint water could be coupled with the proclamation that it was perfectly safe (EPA standards compliant) for the population to drink.
Wow, this is crazy. The problem is persistent and widespread. However, this doesn’t mean the end! You can chose to be safe and get the Aqua Boy Pro 2, a water generator that uses basic dehumidification technology to extract and produce water from the air. Our Aqua Boy Pro 11 generates up to 5 gallons of purified, healthy, great tasting drinking water; with no pipes, no water lines and no plumbing required. Easy to operate, just plug and play and she goes to work. Email: abah@aquariusbrands.org or visit http://www.atmosphericwatersolutions.com/
Units? Leading zero?
Should read;
Throughout the article sub-integer values need a leading zero for clarity.
It would be far more useful to readers to list the affected water systems / states. Its interesting to count the 18 or 40 systems in 14states but not really helpful to those affected.
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for this story. Is there a full list available of the dozens of communities reporting levels above the new threshold?
Tucson, AZ is the largest EPA, ADEQ Superfund Site on the NPL. since 1980’s Hughes aircraft missiles company improperly disposed thousands of pounds of spent solvents into a Minority Hispanic Plume areas TCE, and Hex Cr6. into ponds caused soil and groundwater contamination, the Tucson Airport tenants put us on the map, but it was 2014 that USAF finally signed into an Agreement, City of Tucson Water recently last week after my formal notice to them that the Bad stuff has migrated putting Tucson health at risk, after finding that the treatment plant to remove tce, had not including hex cr6, also that 2000 the plant detected 1,4-dioxane epa, has since 1 month ago set a health advisory to the dx, tce, at 0.5ppb the city has also determined a risk assessment to set standard of dx, at o.1ppb i have worked long days and hours out reaching to our citizens with no pay or funding to assist me, in the worlds largest concerns and evidence of the carcinogens probable cause to cancers and lupus . I have recently taken it further and filed a civil complaint after Tucson attorneys have no money to take on such cases . I have also reviewed data, and original chronology and geographic clusters most people do not know a thing about, Native Tribal Mebers are highly impacted but it is hard to help everyone, the map shows also the pipping and submittal to the Hughes PVC Casings drainage and pipping routes that are at very close proximity to our front and back yards, which vessels hazardous waste sulfuric acid and sodium hydrocarbons manifests also exposed demons i am traveling to DC, to address epa, to recognize Inmates and Citizens and am now a EJ Non profit founder of Mothers safe air safe water . Tucson needs help i need help to come before this giant .
That killed my child Tianna and my current child who is in her end stages, and grandchildren who also suffer birth defects ( cleft palate), and ASTHMAS including, Kidney cancers and Lupus .
Thanks to those who care .
Woman with cause
Linda, I am so saddened to hear of your dear Tianna’s death. I offer you and your family and friends as much water as you need for free. I live nearby with a naturally, unfiltered, pure, flowing artesian well. My land is located 50 miles northeast of you, along the San Pedro River, in the extreme northeast corner of Pima county. Bob@BeSolar.info
The saying goes: the solution to pollution is dilution.
Just spitballing here: It seems reasonable that prostate cancer is caused by water contamination doesn’t it, something so pervasive seems to be getting much (ad related) press … men’s prostate (enlargement or cancer) problems. Who do they sue? I had thought maybe the cause was Vietnam era military service exposure of some kind. Seemed like everyone over 60 was getting it. Now, perhaps all along, it may have been the public water sources pre/post that era?
Tucson, AZ founder of EJ non profit Mothers safe air safe water force, has been called out to do the amazing most people would not know where to start after the death of my daughter and recent cancers in my children and grandchildren the lord exposed the Military Formerly Used Defense Sites ( FUDS ), and industrial, improper dumping from 1952-1980’s Hughes Missiles Company, AZ who improperly dumped thousands of pounds of TCE, Hex Cr6.
Tucson, AZ is the Largest EPA, and ADEQ Superfund sites of 10, Groundwater and soil Contamination . The pollution caused by the Corporate Polluters that put our faces on the map, did not end there 2014 the TARP / AOP Water Treatment Plant began to remove TCE, using Air Stripper to remove TCE, which failed and 3 mos. ago sold the land and closed the plant after I tested my Tap Water and shared it with the City Tucson Water Co. the City of Tucson also replaced the drainage systems that originated from Hughes and Air Force Base, in 1980’s and shut down wells however, those to detected High Elevated levels of Hex Cr6, and 1,4- Dioxane, the attorneys that sued the Tucson Airport Authority also failed the Citizens new generation leaving out many plaintiffs that could not possibly be aware of the imapcts 40 yrs latr the 1980’s Remediation has caused interference of commerce and common law including Injuries the ADEQ Environmental Insurance Residential Liability and Consent Decree with PRP’s have also violated the Public Comments, and Parrticipation in the rule makings . My demands and Correspondance show evidence of the Violation of the TITLE VI.
The plant manifests and chronology shoe Alerts that instead of NOI, NOV should have been EPA, Spills on National T.V social media to AZ citizens who have ben impacted of the ongoing injustice .
I am hoping my comments may open doors to get some support from other EJ Activist . I am traveling to DC. to address the EPA, to Recognize inmates and Citizens in minority Hispanic populated areas in the plume of TCE, DX CR6.
If you know attorneys that can take on Class Action or Civil Action, Direct Action against these sharks please send them my way .
Woman with Cause
Thank you Linda for your sacrifice and dedication to a safer and more accountable world. God bless.
good question. Should be easy to answer. The breast and prostate are collection points in a water system. Within those a process takes place whereby cells that maintain the water become afflicted probably during replication as any ‘poison’ in the water interferes. It has to be rather simple.
Pancreas – lots of water.
Brain – lots of water.
Mouth – lots of water.
This is not rocket science. One does not get cancer of the finger.
The part about blending water from other sources is amusing. With low levels of a typical carcinogen (which this isn’t) it’s assumed that there is a roughly linear relationship between the amount of chemical and the risk. So if you send .1 thimbles to 50 people or .05 thimbles to 100 people, the total casualties should be about the same. Of course, the curve might not be linear – if so though, you have zero data to guess whether it would be higher or lower number of casualties from dilution.
the whole ppm thing is a conjob. Older, more acidic, accumulation, all promotes susceptability.
intestinal scrubs and flush!
Bill Maher had Erin Brockovich on talking about Flint; she was calling for the use of carbon filters (but they’re expensive).
Here’s a recommendation for personal use: http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2015/08/your-drinking-water-safe
Also, a bit of a side note: Camp LeJeune NC has had a long history of water problems; believe it’s still ongoing..
Another side note: carbon filters are made from slashing and burning forests, coal, or burnt coconut shells…. so yeah the planet is toast.
Hello! I am sorry, but I just wanted to chime in on this comment. I work for a water filter company, and I just want to point out that if you do decide to purchase a carbon filter, then make sure to get a solid block based carbon filter unit.
Loose carbon filters (IE: Brita pitcher types) don’t clean the water as effectively due to the fact that small particles can still pass through the carbon membrane due to the porous nature of the filters.
It would be nice if each of The Intercept’s reports was accompanied by a quick “Who’s Who” reference. A quick list of the people mentioned in the story and their (alleged) roles: “John Doe, Big Chem Co. factory worker, alleges C8 poisoning from Big Chem Co. Dr. Jane Doe, Big Chem Co. lab director, denies company harmed John Doe.” And so on. Not only would it help readers get up to speed quickly, it would also greatly facilitate further investigation by citizen journalists.
Given enough time and input, the collected Who’s Who sections could form a linked web that would show connections between corporations, and more importantly, the people behind them. This would help stop alleged bad guys from ducking out of sight for a few years, only to reappear with a clean public image in some other corporation.
I found it most helpful to mark the items that specifically were important for ME to remember for easy quick reference.
Thanks for the report Sharon Lerner.
America needs to wake up.
I have 2 other complaints
1. rainwater falling on graveyards going into the water table
2. fracking chemicals – bigtime poison – going into the water supply
maybe the whole planet is toast.
After being diagnosed with kidney stones, passing three on my own and having two separate surgeries, I decided to take the advice of my nephrologist to prevent them from recurring. This book is a textbook of knowledge covering areas relating to how the stones are formed, causes and multiple plans of action to prevent them from occurring again. My book is “highlighted”, paperclipped and “dog-eared” to easily locate golden nuggets of wisdom that I don’t want to forget. Because this approach is a multi-faceted one, it requires multiple changes to be made in one’s lifestyle. Some of the changes I had to make were diet (switching to low-oxalate), increasing consumption of water, calcium with meals, strict reduction of salt and the decrease of my diuretics. This book gives explanation and suggestions http://www.kidneycurer.com/ as to how to make the changes work for you. It does require a juggling act and this straight-forward “textbook” has been a great source for staying on course, that is to prevent future kidney stones. It is easy reading and comes in chapters by subject. However, I found it most helpful to mark the items that specifically were important for ME to remember for easy quick reference.
That’s a snarky, misleading headline unbecoming of this quality website. The Intercept should discourage snarky editors from being creative with their headline writing.
Hi Harlowe, I believe you’re misreading the tone of the headline. No snark was intended. It’s simply stating that with the new lowered threshold for PFOA and PFOS, the drinking water in many cities nationwide is now considered dangerous.
True–a swooning headline improbably extracted from this article’s sober body.
General questions:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es010780r
Can today’s analytical methods quantify contamination levels below 25 part-per-trillion?
How might a responsible party clean an aquifer of contamination at the 70 ppt level, other than by dilution? Is a fine a more likely remedy than specific performance?
Maybe it causes autism too!
Just want to pile on. Sad day for chemical manufacturers and their customers. Neither of those chemicals are naturally occurring and it will be very easy to prove who introduced them into the environment.
Very sad day for the planet. I don’t believe that stuff ever breaks down, or if it does the resulting soup wouldn’t be much better for any life form.
No one introduced PFOA; it’s the byproduct of a degradation (breakdown) of other chemicals (PFOS is also, but it is additionally used, mainly as a fire retardant). Just like no one makes dioxin, it occurs when you burn plastic.
All of this is the result of industrial society. Better dying thru chemistry!