[Press Relsease] More than 600,000 service members given ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water

By EWG | December 12, 2022

Read the full article by EWG

"More than 600,000 service members at 116 military installations were annually served water with potentially unsafe levels of the toxic “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, according to an Environmental Working Group analysis.

An internal study by the Department of Defense from April concluded the Pentagon served unsafe water containing PFOA and PFOS – the two most notorious PFAS – to 175,000 members a year at 24 installations. That study only counted service members at installations served water with levels of PFOA and PFOS greater than 70 parts per trillion, or ppt, an advisory level set by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2016. But the agency in June tightened that level, to less than 1 ppt.

The DOD’s analysis also did not include service members’ drinking water purchased from local water utilities or from privatized on-base water systems, which may also have been contaminated with the chemicals."

Topics:

• ChemicalsPFAS
• SourcesMilitary bases
• Environment
• Wildlife
• ImpactDrinking water
• ImpactDrinking waterPrivate wells
• Health
• Measurement Techniques
• Monitoring Data