Not to ignore more so due to the current floods
cnet.com PFAS testing and filtration
This reality also further muddies the issue of whether I should be drinking the precious rain that falls on my desert home.
After all, Faust pointed out to me, "a 2021 study by a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins found PFOA concentrations in bottled water ranged from 170 pg/L to 2,000 pg/L."
So if bottled water has up to 500 times the EPA's advisable limit for PFAS, can my at-home rainwater-based Sodastream refreshments actually be much worse?
"If the remote area you currently live in is not vulnerable to long-range atmospheric transport of air-borne PFAS, you should be fine," Kurwadkar told me.
Of course, I have no idea how vulnerable I am to forever chemicals hitching a ride across the world high in the sky before dropping on my house inside a million tiny rain drops -- I didn't sign up for whatever premium subscription might tell me that.
There are ways to find out, though. Multiple companies offer home test kits to check for PFAS in your drinking water. A number of labs will analyze water samples for you for about $200 to $300, but I've ordered a kit from Cyclopure, which offers an $80 mail-in test.
It will take a few weeks to get results for my own water, but I'll be sure to write an update when they come in.
Meanwhile, Faust reminds me that there are options to ease postindustrial apocalyptic anxieties other than panicking over the toxic sky falling.
"I don't have a clear answer for you on whether switching water sources will lower your PFAS intake, but if you are very concerned, you could look into filtration systems with granular activated carbon for PFAS removal."
Adding a GAC filter to a home plumbing system is a relatively simple task, but it's still a plumbing job, which are rarely actually simple compared with most other tasks in life. Another option is a reverse osmosis filtration system, and there are countertop options available to filter drinking water that don't require any plumbing work.
Sometimes when technology turns out to be toxic, our only choice is to turn to even more tech for salvation. So for now, I'm sticking with drinking from the sky while I wait for my results to come in and start comparing filtration options just in case.
Abstract
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are compounds of emerging concern due to their persistence in the global water cycle and detection in drinking water sources. However, PFAS have been poorly studied in bottled water, especially in the United States. This study investigated the occurrence of PFAS and related factors in 101 uniquely labelled bottled water products for sale in the U.S. Products were screened for 32 target PFAS by solid phase extraction-liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (SPE-LC-MS/MS). Fifteen of 32 measured analytes were detected, consisting primarily of C3-C10 perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCA) and C3-C6 and C8 perfluorosulfonic acids (PFSA). PFAS were detected above method detection limits in 39/101 tested products. The S32PFAS concentrations detected were 0.17–18.87 ng/L with a median of 0.98 ng/L; 97% of samples were below 5 ng/L. PFCA (83%) and short-chain perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAA) containing 5 or less CF2 groups (67%) were more prevalent on a mass basis than PFSA and longer-chain PFAA, respectively. Ultrashort-chain PFPrA, measured for the first time in bottled water, accounted for the greatest individual fraction of detected PFAS mass (42%) and was found almost exclusively in products labeled as Spring water. Purified water products contained significantly less PFAS than Spring water products, which was attributed to the use of reverse osmosis (RO) treatment in the majority of Purified waters (25/35) compared to Spring waters (1/45). RO-treated products contained significantly lower S32PFAS, long-chain, short-chain, and PFPrA concentrations than products without RO. Although no enforceable PFAS regulations exist for bottled water in the U.S., the finding that some products approach levels of concern justify a framework for monitoring PFAS in bottled water production. |
