Author: Savannah Sinor, Abigail Carpenter
Today's PFAS post is about how PFAS got into our waterways and what the risks are of these types of particles in our water systems.
In North Carolina, current lawsuits around PFAS center on impacts to the Cape Fear River from the Chemours Company and the Haw River by Apollo Chemicals. The Chemours Company, a chemical firm spun off from DuPont de Nemours in 2015, has been implicated in dumping chemicals, including PFAS, into the Cape Fear River from its Fayetteville Works plant. Chemours denies responsibility for the contamination.
NC's Department of Environmental Quality has a wealth of resources available to understand how PFAS contamination happens, what current and proposed EPA standards will mean, and what kinds of costs communities may face from meeting those new EPA standards. DEQ notes that:
Most Americans have been exposed to PFAS. Scientists have identified ingestion through drinking water as the primary pathway for PFAS exposure in humans. Most standard municipal drinking water treatment systems are not built to filter out PFAS and until recently, testing labs were not able to detect them at lower levels.
Some PFAS can accumulate in the human body. Scientific studies have shown that exposure to certain levels of PFAS have been linked to reproductive effects such as decreased fertility or increased high blood pressure in pregnant women; developmental effects or delays in children, including low birth weight, accelerated puberty, bone variations, or behavioral changes; increased risk of some cancers; reduced ability of the body’s immune system to fight infections, including reduced vaccine response; interference with the body’s natural hormones; and increased cholesterol levels and/or risk of obesity.
See us next time for information about what residents can do to stay safe.