EPA Releases Drinking Water Health Advisories for Four Major PFAS Chemicals

EPA’s aggressive approach to PFAS regulation continues with updated interim drinking water health advisories for four common PFAS compounds. Keep reading for an overview of the most important points to take away from EPA’s announcement.

• • PFAS, or per- and poly-fluroalkyl substances, comprise a class of nearly 5,000 compounds used extensively in various commercial and consumer products including nonstick cookware, consumer oils and waxes, fast food packaging, cosmetics, toiletries, and flame-retardant fabrics.
  • Also known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally in the environment, PFAS chemicals that originate from manufacturing sites and industrial processes cycle into the broader environment through air emissions and wastewater discharges into surface water, groundwater or municipal sewer systems before accumulating in soil, sediments, wildlife, plants and people.
  • Researchers have detected PFAS contamination across the globe in places such as rain, ground and tap water, rivers, oceans and lakes, marine animals, seabirds, predators, the air, the soil, agricultural crops, and newborn babies.
  • PFAS have been linked to a number of human health concerns ranging from reproductive effects such as developmental delays, low birth weights, and behavioral changes in children to hormone disruption, increased risk of some cancers, heightened cholesterol levels, increased risk of obesity, increased risk of hypertension in women, liver damage, and thyroid disease.
  • One major pathway for PFAS to infiltrate the human body is through drinking water. EPA’s announcement was spurred by new research showing that when lifetime exposure is taken into account, negative health effects may result even when PFAS concentrations in drinking water are near zero and below EPA’s current ability to detect.
  • EPA’s updated drinking water health advisories update the existing advisory levels for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) and establish new advisory levels for two other PFAS—perfluorobutane sulfonic acid and its potassium salt (PFBS), and hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid and its ammonium salt (GenX chemicals).
  • Although many manufacturers phased out their use of PFOA and PFOS after the negative health effects of such substances became known toward the end of the 20th century, these compounds were previously used in leather and fabric coatings, stain-resistant fabrics, fire-resistant foams, pesticides, and household cleaning products, and persist in our environment today. PFBS and GenX chemicals are now widely used as replacements for PFOA and PFOS. However, recent studies have shown that these compounds are nearly as hazardous to human health as those they replaced.
  • EPA’s revised advisory levels are now set at 0.004 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and 0.02 ppt for PFOS, representing a dramatic change from the 70 ppt level EPA previously set in 2016 for these two compounds. The new drinking water advisory levels for PFBS and GenX chemicals are 2,000 ppt and 10 ppt respectively.  
  • The updated advisory levels for PFOA and PFOS pose a particular compliance challenge for water utilities, whose current analytical methods may not be able to detect PFAS levels set in the parts per quadrillion.
  • While EPA’s advisory levels are not regulatory, state regulators and federal agencies frequently use them as enforceable standards for environmental programs. Many states have already adopted the previous advisory levels for PFOA and PFOS as their drinking water standard.
  • EPA’s announcement of these interim advisory levels also previews the agency’s proposal of a PFAS National Drinking Water Regulation, anticipated in fall 2022.

Please contact Steve Levine, David Topping, Sophie Gray, or any member of Phelps’ Environmental team if you have questions or need compliance advice and guidance.