New limits on forever chemicals in water should reduce PFAS exposure for about 100 million Americans, according to the Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency has finalized the nation’s first drinking water standard for “forever chemicals,” a group of persistent human-made chemicals that can pose a health risk to people at even the smallest detectable levels of exposure.
This is the first time the EPA has set a drinking water standard for a new contaminant since 1996. Some states — including Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington — have already passed drinking water standards for certain PFAS.“Everyone should be able to turn on the tap and know that the glass of water they fill is safe to drink and free of pollutants,” Brenda Mallory, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality said on a call with reporters Tuesday.
But the EPA has previously reported that a lifetime exposure of even 0.004 and 0.02 parts per trillion of the two forever chemicals coulda person’s immune and cardiovascular systems. The rule also sets additional limits for other individual PFAS as well as mixtures of the compounds., the administrator of the EPA, said Tuesday. “But there’s also no doubt that many of these chemicals can be harmful to our health and environment.
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