Dec. 17, 2019 11:58AM EST
Researchers found that
rainwater in some parts of the U.S. have high levels of toxic chemicals. If the chemicals
are found in similar levels in drinking water, it would
spur regulatory action, according to The Guardian.
The research from the National Atmospheric
Deposition Program, which works with the Department of the Interior's U.S. Geological Survey, found the toxic forever chemicals
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) present in rainwater samples from across the country,
according to The Guardian.
The substances are dubbed
forever chemicals because they do not degrade in the environment. Exposure to
PFAS has been linked to various ailments, including cancers in
humans and animals, especially in the kidneys and testicles. They have also
been linked to thyroid disease, weakened immunity and other diseases, as NBC News reported.
While more than 4,700 variants
of toxic forever chemicals have been identified, the EPA only regulates two of
them: PFOS and PFOA. The chemicals are common in everyday items like
insulation, food packaging, carpeting, cookware and firefighting foam,
according to NBC News.
"There were folks not too
long ago who felt the atmospheric transport route was not too important,"
said Martin Shafer, principal researcher with the National Atmospheric
Deposition Program (NADP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as The Guardian reported. "The data belies that
statement."
Shafer and his team tested 37
samples of rainwater from 30 different areas, mostly on the East Coast, but
extending as far west as Washington State and as far south as Alabama. Every
single sample tested positive for at least one of the 36 different compounds
that the scientists tested for. The largest sample was from Massachusetts and
showed 5.5 nanograms (ng) per liter. Several other samples had a slightly
smaller concentration of 4 ng per liter, while most samples showed
concentrations that were less one ng per liter, according to The Guardian.
"There's a dearth of
knowledge about what's supporting the atmospheric concentrations and ultimately
deposition of PFAS," said Shaefer, as The Guardian reported. He suspects the PFAS are
entering the atmosphere through various avenues, including factory emissions
and fire-fighting foams.
Factory emissions polluting
the rainwater was confirmed in North Carolina in a study from the state's division of air quality, which
found over 500 ng per liter of PFAS in the rainwater near the Chemours
facility, as The Guardian reported.
The scourge of PFAS has caused
various health problems around military bases where the chemicals were once
prominent in fire-fighting equipment. In those communities, levels of PFAS in
water have been hundreds, and, on occasion, thousands of times higher that what
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) advises.
However, since most of those chemicals are not listed on the Safe Drinking
Water Acts list of banned contaminants, there is no regulation that requires
utilities to test for them, as NBC News reported.
The Department of Defense
spending bill that Congress passed last week dropped key provisions that were
written to reduce ongoing releases of the toxic fluorinated chemicals called
PFAS, remove PFAS from tap water and clean up legacy PFAS contamination, as the
Environmental Working Group said in a press release. However, the spending bill did address the
future use of PFAS, phasing out its use completely from fire-fighting foams by
October 2024, according to the Military Times.
"When your water is
polluted with toxic PFAS, it's not much comfort to know who is polluting
it," said Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group's senior vice president
for government affairs. "While it's good news that the Defense Department
will finally phase out PFAS in firefighting foam and food packaging,
communities desperately need Congress to tackle industrial PFAS releases into
the air and water and to require DOD to clean up legacy PFAS pollution."
Linda Birnbaum, former
director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a division
of the National Institutes of Health told The Guardian that more research is needed on rainwater
as well as the PFAS what we inhale and ingest.
"We see effects on liver,
kidney, development, pregnancy, heart," she said to NBC News. "I think that's where many people are
frustrated. Where there's pretty much growing, and I'd say fairly clear
evidence of harm, EPA doesn't have the flexibility to move rapidly."
