USA Today Network | By: Keith Matheny | Detroit Free Press | 2:20 p.m. ET June 8, 2017:
They come from everyday products ranging from nonstick pan surfaces, carpet stain-proofing and water-resistant clothing. And they’re in almost every American’s blood: highly fluorinated toxic chemicals known as perfluorochemicals, or PFCs.
They’re linked to testicular and kidney cancer and thyroid disease — and have been found to render critical childhood immunizations against communicable diseases less effective.
A new study released Thursday by the non-profit Environmental Working Group and Northeastern University in Boston shows harmful types of PFCs, known as PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) or PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), can be found in drinking water systems in 27 U.S. states and in the tap water supplies of 15 million people.
“It’s a much larger number than we thought before,” said Bill Walker, managing editor of Environmental Working Group.
The water pollution comes from former industrial sites, current and shuttered military bases, and in many cases from unknown sources. In Michigan, five water supplies have been found with PFCs, including in Ann Arbor, from an unspecified source.
Of the 47 locations nationwide where the source of PFCs contamination in drinking water supplies is known or suspected in the Environmental Working Group-Northeastern study, 21 are current or former military bases, 20 are industrial facilities and seven are from civilian firefighting sites. Some locations have multiple sources.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in May 2016 set a “health advisory level” for PFOS and PFOA at 70 parts per trillion. EPA officials said they were basing the nonenforceable threshold “on the agency’s assessment of the latest peer-reviewed science.”
But a Harvard University environmental health professor, and one of the leading researchers on public health effects from PFCs, said the standard “may be 100-fold too high.”
“The so-called safe drinking water limits are not safe; they are unsafe,” said Philippe Grandjean.
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