A nationwide study of thousands of people living near drinking water contaminated by PFAS found that nearly all of them have these “forever chemicals” in their blood.
What’s happening?
The study, summarized by The Philadelphia Inquirer, looked at adults and children across eight states, finding that 99% of them had perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in their bloodstreams.
The publication added that study participants living in two Pennsylvania counties — Bucks and Montgomery — near military bases drank from private wells that contained PFAS in amounts that were thousands of times over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s drinking water standards. About 30% of people tested in those two counties had high enough levels to fall within a range that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine recommends for medical testing.
“We have some idea for some of the major health outcomes that we’re looking at, like blood cholesterol levels, thyroid disease and thyroid hormones, metabolic syndrome, blood pressure,” Dr. Robert Laumbach, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, told the publication.
Why is PFAS exposure concerning?
While the science is evolving, the EPA says PFAS exposure has already been linked to a variety of health problems, including decreased fertility, increased risk of certain cancers, and reduced ability of the body’s immune system to fight infections…