Every time you pour a glass of water, you expect it to be safe and pure. Yet, lurking within tap water lies an unseen and unknown threat: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Often called “forever chemicals,” these persistent contaminants accumulate in ecosystems, threatening both environmental and human health.
This article delves into the spread of PFAS contamination, the hurdles in regulating and removing these hazardous substances, and, most importantly, how you can safeguard your household. From understanding what PFAS are and how they infiltrate water supplies to discovering effective water filtration methods, you’ll gain essential insights for ensuring safer water at home.
Understanding PFAS: What They Are and Why They’re Problematic
Per- and polyfluoroalklyl substances (PFAS) are a group of over 15,000 synthetic chemicals known for their versatility. Since their introduction in the 1950s, these chemicals have been used in innumerable consumer goods and industrial processes due to their unique properties, such as water, oil, and stain repellency; resistance to heat, chemicals, and extreme conditions; and friction-reducing capabilities.
PFAS are omnipresent. Their liquid-repelling properties make them common in textiles, enabling the production of water- and stain-resistant clothing, tapestries, upholstered furniture, and leather goods. In food packaging, PFAS provide grease resistance, while non-stick cookware relies on them for easy-release surfaces. They also enhance lathering, application, and water resistance in cleaners, paints, inks, and varnishes, and are used in hygienic products like diapers and menstrual items for leak prevention.
PFAS’s endurance makes them valuable stabilizers across multiple industries. In personal care products and cosmetics, such as moisturizers and long-lasting makeup, they maintain formula consistency and improve texture, absorption, and staying power. In pharmaceuticals, they ensure component integrity. Electronics use PFAS for heat and wear protection, while vehicles rely on them in air conditioning, batteries, brakes, and seals. PFAS are also crucial in aerospace, medical industries, and firefighting foams for flame suppression. Their ability to withstand environmental fluctuations, along with their friction-reducing properties, makes them useful as lubricants in fuels and oils, helping maintain flow and efficiency.
The unique resilience of PFAS lies in their carbon-fluorine bonds, which are among the strongest in chemistry, making them highly resistant to degradation–nearly unbreakable. When PFAS do break down, they often transform into other equally stable forms, compounding environmental persistence. This endurance has given them the nickname ‘forever chemicals.’
As a result, PFAS accumulate in the environment, migrating through air, soil, and water. They have been detected in wildlife, food, household dust, and water sources, the latter being recognized as the major exposure pathway. More alarmingly, PFAS are also found in human tissues, prompting further investigation into their potential health impacts.
The Health Risks of PFAS Exposure
The chemical industry has known about PFAS toxicity since the 1970s but concealed this information from the public and authorities for many years. As a result, significant research only began in the 1990s and accelerated in the 2000s, shedding light on their adverse effects, which are believed to be significantly overlooked.
Continuous exposure to various PFAS, combined with their extremely long half-lives, results in bioaccumulation in the body over many years, affecting multiple organs and systems. They have been linked to developmental issues, hormonal imbalances, immune suppression, and an increased risk of cancer. Pregnant individuals and children are particularly vulnerable, with studies associating PFAS with low birth weights and developmental delays.
Despite these known effects, the full extent of PFAS’s health impacts remains unclear due to the countless variations and ongoing discovery of new compounds. This uncertainty underscores the need for precautionary measures, particularly in reducing exposure through drinking water.
The Growing Threat of PFAS in Drinking Water
Forever is a long time; some studies estimate that perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has a half-life of approximately 235 years in water. Indeed, PFAS can enter water sources through multiple routes. Facilities that manufacture or use PFAS often discharge these chemicals into rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Furthermore, landfills containing PFAS-laden waste leach contaminants directly into water or wastewater treatment plants. Incinerators release airborne PFAS—resistant to temperatures up to 1000°C—that eventually deposit into soil and water, perpetuating contamination.
Municipal wastewater treatment plants also contribute significantly, as 87% of landfill leachate is sent to these facilities. However, these plants are not designed to filter out PFAS, allowing the chemicals to re-enter water bodies. In fact, treatment processes can generate more stable forms of PFAS, compounding the issue. Additionally, biosolids—sludge by-products from wastewater treatment—are often used as agricultural fertilizers, spreading PFAS onto fields and eventually polluting nearby water sources.
Additional contamination arises from firefighting foams used at airports, industrial sites, and military bases, which eventually infiltrate aquifers and surface water. In Ontario, this has been a substantial contributor to water contamination.
This widespread dispersal means that PFAS are not confined to areas near their sources but can spread across vast distances through water, even appearing in remote regions like the Arctic.
How PFAS Contaminate our Water Supplies
Naturally, PFAS may be present in residential water wells, but public data is often unavailable. More importantly, municipal water treatment centres lack the capacity to detect and remove PFAS. Since city water supplies often draw from contaminated sources like rivers and lakes, PFAS persist in the tap water that reaches households, schools, and other public places. Between 2016 and 2021, monitoring in Ontario revealed alarming trends, with PFAS detected in drinking water systems. PFOA was found in 73% of samples, while perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) appeared in 50%, highlighting the limitations of current water treatment technologies. Moreover, current testing methods measure only 29 PFAS compounds out of thousands, leaving a significant portion unmonitored.
The Challenge of Regulating and Removing PFAS
“Regrettable Substitution”
As PFAS are easily modifiable, the emergence of new, shorter-chain compounds adds complexity to efforts to understand, detect, assess risks, and mitigate contamination. Long-Chain PFAS, such as PFOA and PFOS, are the original legacy chemicals—thus among the most studied and well-documented. Their confirmed toxicity has led authorities like Canada to prohibit their manufacture and import, with some exemptions. In response, industries have adopted short-chain alternatives, such as Trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and GenX. These are marketed as safer substitutes due to their supposedly lower bioaccumulation. However, their higher water solubility not only makes them more spreadable, increasing the likelihood of polluting drinking water, but recent research also shows these compounds persist in the environment like their predecessors and may exhibit toxicity at lower doses, making them equally harmful, if not more.
As a result, while a decrease in long-chain PFAS–though still widespread–has been observed, short-chain PFAS, which are not typically tested for, are becoming more prevalent in water supplies and the human body. This ‘regrettable substitution’ underscores the need for more comprehensive regulation and modernized treatment methods in facilities.
Regulatory Momentum and the Path Forward
Globally, regulatory approaches to PFAS are gaining momentum, but significant hurdles remain. The sheer number of PFAS compounds–largely unmonitored–makes a substance-by-substance approach impractical, prompting public health advocates to call for regulating PFAS as a class. In May 2023, Health Canada proposed designating PFAS as a toxic class under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act—a step toward more rigorous regulation, though progress has been slow.
Meanwhile, the persistence of legacy PFAS, along with lesser-known compounds in treated drinking water, raises concerns about the adequacy of current water safety management and legal frameworks. Researchers argue that these frameworks remain insufficient and emphasize the need for urgent action through updated processes and stronger protective measures for public health.
Despite this urgency, regulatory inertia persists, leaving many communities vulnerable. While the U.S. EPA’s recent limits on six PFAS compounds set a stricter standard of 4 ng/L, pressuring other countries, including Canada, to follow suit, Canadian Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality still allow maximum levels of 200 ng/L for PFOA and 600 ng/L for PFOS—limits considered extremely high by international standards.
In February 2023, Health Canada proposed a new objective of 30 nanograms per litre (ng/L) for a total of 25 specific PFAS compounds—a move forward but still lenient compared to the U.S.’s recent policy shift. Notably, this proposed limit was based on economic and technical feasibility rather than public safety concerns, underscoring limited resources allocated to the issue.
Lastly, Canada’s drinking water guidelines are voluntary and non-enforceable in most jurisdictions, leaving public water supplies underregulated and municipalities struggling to manage PFAS contamination with inconsistent monitoring requirements and constrained support.
The Economic and Technical Conundrum
Technically and economically, removing PFAS from water is no small feat. As mentioned, these chemicals are resistant to conventional treatment methods like sedimentation and biological filtration. More advanced technologies like activated carbon, ion exchange, and reverse osmosis (RO) are effective but expensive and challenging to implement on a large scale due to high energy demands and complex waste management.
Upgrading water treatment facilities to incorporate PFAS-specific filtration can cost municipalities millions of dollars. Without financial incentives and clear regulatory mandates, these costly upgrades are hard to justify, especially given the added challenge of removing short-chain PFAS. Furthermore, the financial burden often extends to consumers through increased water utility rates.
In conclusion, removing PFAS from the broader environment and public water supplies remains unfeasible under current circumstances. On one hand, existing regulations rely on scientific knowledge that may not fully reflect the problem’s scope. On the other hand, addressing PFAS contamination requires time, planning, consultation, and resources—priorities that often compete with other pressing issues.
Defend Your Home from PFAS Contamination: What Can You Do?
Learning about the risks of PFAS can be unsettling, but you can take immediate action to minimize exposure, particularly from those present in your tap water. Staying informed about the latest findings and government regulations is a proactive first step, empowering you to make informed decisions and advocate for change. Additionally, installing advanced water filtration systems is the most reliable way to protect your home.
Effective Solutions for Removing PFAS from Tap Water
Proven water purification technologies provide a practical defence against PFAS and their emerging variants. Three of the best options are:
- Reverse Osmosis (RO): Recognized as the most powerful method, RO systems, designed with multiple prior filtration stages, force water through a semi-permeable membrane that blocks PFAS and other contaminants. These solutions are highly efficient, capturing a broader range of PFAS, including both long-chain and short-chain varieties.
- Activated Carbon Filtration: This method uses porous carbon to adsorb PFAS molecules, trapping them and preventing their passage into drinking water. Activated carbon filtration is a reliable solution for reducing PFAS concentrations, particularly for long-chain PFAS, while also being effective against many short-chain compounds.
- Whole-house Filtration Systems: Whole-house water filtration systems provide comprehensive protection by treating all the water entering a home, ensuring that drinking, bathing, and cleaning water are filtered. These units often combine various technologies to efficiently mitigate PFAS and other impurities, making them an ideal choice for individuals concerned about overall water quality.
These systems offer long-term protection, ensuring access to clean, safe water while safeguarding plumbing and appliances.
Conclusion: Safeguarding Your Home from PFAS
PFAS contamination in drinking water is a serious issue, but Kent Water Purification Systems offers top-tier, tailored water filtration solutions to address it and other harmful pollutants, ensuring your home has access to uncompromised water quality. Visit our website, reach out to us, or book a complimentary water test–our professionals are here to help guide you toward a healthier future!
