海角大神

Long before the Environmental Protection Agency announced new rules this month about 鈥渇orever chemicals鈥� in drinking water, officials in the state of Vermont knew there was a problem.

Regulators there began looking into PFAS 鈥� shorthand for synthetic perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances 鈥� after residents near the town of Bennington complained that their water had been contaminated by a nearby factory, which for decades had produced fiberglass-coated fabrics. That was in 2016. Vermont officials eventually uncovered a public health crisis 鈥� which resulted in strict statewide PFAS regulations.

Recently, advocates say, this wake-up has been happening on a broader scale. Across the United States, there has been a wave of grassroots public health campaigns, state policies, and even burgeoning federal efforts designed to reduce the risk of these forever chemicals, which have been linked to a slew of health impacts.

Many advocates hope the new nationwide rules released by the EPA last week, which create stringent new standards for PFAS in drinking water, will be only the first step of a wider effort to study, remediate, and regulate the chemicals.聽

鈥淲hile I welcome the new enforceable drinking water standards, we really need to look upstream,鈥� says Judith Enck, president of the advocacy group Beyond Plastics. 鈥淗ow do we reduce the use of PFAS in general?鈥澛�

PFAS are used in consumer goods from carpets to rain jackets, from cookware to cosmetics. They are resistant to heat, and repel stains, oil, and water, but they do not break down in nature. And they regularly end up in drinking water, soil, food, and ultimately humans.聽

The term 鈥淧FAS鈥� refers to thousands of different substances, all containing a certain chemical bond; the new EPA water standards apply to six. While advocates praised the move, some water utilities criticized what it said would be a costly mandate 鈥撀爋ne study by an industry association estimated the new rules would cost upward of $3.8 billion nationally.聽

鈥淭he vast majority of these treatment costs will be borne by communities and ratepayers, who are also facing increased costs to address other needs, such as replacing lead service lines, upgrading cybersecurity, replacing aging infrastructure and assuring sustainable water supplies,鈥� the American Water Works Association said in a statement.

A 鈥渨ake-up call鈥�

Others agree with the idea that it is a lot harder to try to clean up PFAS than to keep them out of the environment in the first place.聽

鈥淭he thing we realized was that trying to treat every wastewater treatment plant and every drinking water facility 鈥� it was going to be impossible,鈥� says Matt Chapman, director of the waste management and prevention division at Vermont鈥檚 Department of Environmental Conservation.

Vermont鈥檚 experience with responding to PFAS may prove instructive as more consumers and politicians take note of forever chemicals.

Investigators in 2016 discovered聽Bennington鈥檚 groundwater had indeed been tainted with unsafe levels of perfluorooctanoic acid, a particularly dangerous variety of these industry-produced chemicals.聽

After the discovery in Bennington, the Department of Environmental Conservation scrambled to check other locations in the state, from wastewater treatment facilities to landfills to areas where another type of PFAS was used in firefighting foam. Although the levels varied, the contamination was across the state.聽

鈥淭hat was the wake-up call for Vermont,鈥� says Marcie Gallagher, an advocate focusing on environmental health with the Vermont Public Interest Research Group.聽聽

Vermont created its own drinking water standards in 2019, but also added prohibitions on PFAS being added to categories of consumer goods, such as carpets, clothing, cookware, and ski wax. (Regulators found high levels of PFAS contamination around cross-country ski centers, and then realized that the wax used for cross-country racing was high in the substances.)聽聽

Other states have banned PFAS in products such as artificial turf and cookware. In 2021, neighboring Maine went even further and passed legislation that would ban by 2030 all nonessential uses of PFAS in products. (That law was amended this year to provide exceptions.) Minnesota soon followed suit.聽聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 a way to limit consumer exposure to it,鈥� says Sarah Woodbury, vice president of programs and policy for Defend Our Health, a Maine-based group that works on environmental health issues. 鈥淲e鈥檙e phasing it out in a whole bunch of consumer products that people are exposed to on a daily basis.鈥澛�

Currently, about a dozen states have some sort of regulation of PFAS, while a number of companies have pledged to phase out PFAS use in their products. In the Northeast, states have joined forces to create a regional response.聽

But a state-by-state approach is scattered, advocates say. They say the federal government should create rules around PFAS 鈥� including transparency requirements that let consumers know whether the things they buy and eat contain the chemicals.聽聽

鈥淭his really should be regulated at the national level,鈥� says Ms. Enck. 鈥淎bsent federal leadership, states try to step in and fill the vacuum. All the states are doing it differently.鈥澛犅�

Regulation debate聽

Chemical companies object. The industry has already voluntarily regulated and monitored those PFAS shown to be dangerous, according to the American Chemistry Council. Grouping together the thousands of different substances that fall under the PFAS label is a mistake and threatens innovation, the council says.聽

鈥淧FAS are a diverse universe of chemistries that are essential to modern life,鈥� the group says on its website. 鈥淧FAS chemistries are also key to the resiliency of our nation鈥檚 critical supply chains, including semiconductors, cable coatings, building materials, fuel cell and lithium-ion battery technologies, and much more.鈥澛�

Besides, there鈥檚 no proof that all PFAS are dangerous, the group says.

That鈥檚 true, advocates acknowledge. But they say there鈥檚 also no proof that all PFAS are safe 鈥� and a lot to indicate that they鈥檙e not. Chemical companies have been the target of thousands of PFAS-related lawsuits in recent years, including class action cases and those brought by state attorneys general. At the same time, research on the connections between PFAS and various health concerns is evolving.

鈥淭hese are toxic forever chemicals that share carbon fluorine bonds,鈥� says Katie Pelch, a scientist in environmental health at the Natural Resources Defense Council. 鈥淏ecause all the chemicals in that class share that chemical group, we need to treat them as class. The one-at-a-time chemical regulation that we typically see just will not make a dent fast enough to actually protect public health.鈥澛�

In the U.S., regulation tends to come after there is evidence of health risks. But that 鈥渋nnocent until proven guilty鈥� approach, advocates say, shouldn鈥檛 be the case for this class of chemicals, with some of them already shown to be harmful.聽

鈥淧FAS should be banned,鈥� says Ms. Enck. 鈥淲e should have no PFAS in packaging. We should have no PFAS in consumer products. Companies use it because it makes things slippery and water-resistant. But we have to turn off the tap.鈥�