New study finds PFAS in bottled water, as lawmakers call for federal limits

By Ryan Felton | Consumer Reports | June 17, 2021

Read the full article by Ryan Felton (Consumer Reports)

“Some noncarbonated bottled water products sold in the U.S. and tested as part of a new study contained potentially toxic PFAS chemicals, prompting calls for the federal government to set standards covering the chemicals.

The study, published in the journal Water Research and led by Johns Hopkins University researchers, detected PFAS substances in 39 out of more than 100 bottled waters tested, in some cases at levels deemed concerning by water quality experts.

The study did not identify which brands were tested. But the researchers did find that bottled waters labeled as ‘purified,’ which are typically filtered through reverse osmosis, contained less PFAS overall than ‘spring’ water, which is not filtered using that method.

PFAS is short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a chemical class that includes approximately 5,000 compounds that have been linked to cancer and learning delays in children. Used in numerous consumer products, the compounds are known as ‘forever chemicals’ because the bonds that hold PFAS together don’t break down easily in the environment.

‘Our findings support the need for regulatory testing of bottled water source waters, given the frequency of PFAS detection and the occasional detection of elevated levels of PFAS,’ says Kellogg Schwab, PhD, professor of public health at Johns Hopkins and director of the university’s Water Institute, who co-authored the study…”

This content provided by the PFAS Project.