Why getting PFAS out of our products is so hard – and why it matters

By Bella Isaacs-Thomas | PBS | September 29, 2022

Read the full article by Bella Isaacs-Thomas (PBS)

“When it comes to the United States phasing out PFAS, the ‘forever chemicals’ are true to their nickname in more ways than one. It’s not going to be straightforward or swift to eliminate these substances from countless industries, even though they have been potentially linked to myriad health issues.

Found in products like food packaging, clothes and firefighting foam, PFAS have contaminated drinking water sources nationwide since becoming commercially available in the middle of the last century, building up in the environment where they won’t break down for a very long time.

A recent study concluded that rainwater, surface water and ground soil across the globe is extensively contaminated with these chemicals to a point that cannot be reversed without expensive, advanced technological intervention.

‘This stuff is toxic at incredibly low levels and it’s persistent — it stays there for hundreds of years in the groundwater, thousands of years,’ said Graham Peaslee, a Notre Dame professor and researcher who’s tested many products for PFAS in his lab. ‘And that means the next generations will be drinking it, and that’s not the kind of legacy we want to leave our kids.’

This content provided by the PFAS Project.