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PFAS pollutants contaminate rainwater

2022-08-03T10:53:31.643Z


Researchers have detected the chemical PFAS in rainwater even in the most remote places in the world. The water-repellent substance is extremely durable - and is increasingly found in the human organism.


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PFAS are water- and grease-repellent - and are therefore used in packaging or rainwear, for example

Photo: Linda Marie Caldwell / iStockphoto / Getty Images

As is so often the case: people create something that ultimately harms nature.

For example PFAS, a water and grease repellent chemical.

Researchers from Stockholm University and ETH Zurich have now discovered that the extremely long-lived substance is so concentrated in the atmosphere that it can be found in rainwater or snow - all over the world, even in remote places like Antarctica.

PFAS are industrial chemicals which, according to the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), include around 4700 substances.

Once the substance has been absorbed by the human organism, it can be found there for a long time.

In a large European study, such a large amount of PFAS was found in the blood of almost a quarter of 6 to 19-year-olds that, according to the UBA, “health effects can no longer be ruled out with sufficient certainty” (read more about this here).

In animal experiments, the substance has "liver-toxic, carcinogenic and reprotoxic properties," as the UBA writes.

Because of their properties, PFAS are used in outdoor clothing, coated pans and packaging.

The occurrence of PFAS in groundwater was already proven a few years ago.

Despite the ban on several hundred connections, the burden will continue for many years due to the longevity, according to the UBA.

At the same time, many of the currently legally used PFAS have not yet been adequately characterized with regard to their possible dangers to the environment and health.

New guidelines for drinking water

The guide values ​​for PFAS in drinking water, surface water and soil have been corrected due to a better understanding of their toxicity and the dangers they pose to health and nature.

"There has been an astounding decline in guideline values ​​for PFAS in drinking water over the last 20 years," study lead author Ian Cousins ​​is quoted as saying in a statement from Stockholm University.

"For example, the drinking water guideline value for a well-known substance from the PFAS class, namely the carcinogenic perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), has fallen 37.5 million times in the USA".

Based on the latest US guidelines for PFOA in drinking water, rainwater would be classified as non-potable anywhere.

To study the distribution of these chemicals, the Stockholm University team has spent the last decade conducting laboratory and field studies on the occurrence and transport of PFAS in the atmosphere.

The scientists have found that the concentration of some harmful PFAS in the atmosphere is not declining noticeably - even though some major manufacturers have been without the substance for decades.

"The extreme persistence and continuous global cycling of certain PFAS will result in the above guidelines being exceeded further," said Professor Martin Scheringer, a co-author of the study.

Criticism comes from Jane Muncke, managing director of the Food Packaging Forum Foundation in Zurich.

"It cannot be that a few benefit economically while they pollute the drinking water of millions of other people and cause serious health problems," Muncke is quoted in the statement.

The enormous sums of money it will cost to reduce PFAS in drinking water to levels that are safe according to current scientific knowledge would have to be paid for by the industry that produces and uses these toxic chemicals.

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Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-08-03

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