Biden administration sets first national standard to limit ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water
CNN
The Biden administration finalized the first national standard to limit dangerous “forever chemicals” found in nearly half of the drinking water in the United States. Some environmentalists called the new rule a “huge breakthrough” and “historic” change that can help protect human health.
The Biden administration finalized the first national standard to limit dangerous “forever chemicals” found in nearly half of the drinking water in the United States. Some environmentalists called the new rule a “huge breakthrough” and “historic” change that can help protect human health. The new standard is legally enforceable and aims to reduce exposure to per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals.” Water utilities will now have to filter out five of more than 12,000 types of individual forever chemicals — PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS and HFPO-DA, also known as GenX chemicals. The regulations also set a limit for mixtures of any two or more of PFNA, PFHxS, PFBS and GenX chemicals. This family of ubiquitous synthetic chemicals are used to help products repel water and oil, but they linger in the environment and the human body. They are linked to a variety of health problems including cancer, thyroid disease, reproductive problems and heart and liver damage among other issues. The chemicals are found in the blood of nearly 97% of all Americans, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022, the US Environmental Protection Agency issued health advisories that said the chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists originally thought and are probably more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed. But until now, there was no federal standard on the chemicals in drinking water. Only a handful of states have passed laws that compelled water utilities to test for and filter out the chemicals. The new drinking water standard will reduce PFAS exposure for about 100 million people in the United States, the administration said.
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