Kevin Ferrara, AFSO21
A final-form rulemaking pertaining to Maximum Contaminate Levels (MCLs) in drinking water was published in the Pennsylvania Bulletin, Saturday January 14, 2023. This final-form rulemaking pertains to PFOS (Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid), and PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid), two of the thousands of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals known to be toxic carcinogens associated to various forms of cancer and other debilitating medical illnesses or diseases.
PFAS are found in thousands of consumer products like non-stick cookware, cosmetics, water-proof clothing and fabrics, stain-resistant carpeting, food containers, firefighting foam, firefighter turnout gear, and many more. In addition, PFAS has found its way into ground and drinking water sources across the nation. It seems no location is safe from PFAS.
In 2016, the EPA established Lifetime Health Advisories (HAs) for PFOS and PFOA at 70 parts-per-trillion (ppt). However, after reevaluating the health risks of PFAS, the EPA, in June 2022, established interim HAs for PFOS and PFOA at 0.02 ppt and 0.004 ppt respectively. During a June 2022 PFAS conference in Wilmington, North Carolina, an EPA representative stated, with the new HAs, it’s likely every drinking water source in the United States is contaminated.
Lifetime Health Advisories are intended to protect a 154-pound adult consuming 2 liters of water a day containing certain pollutants like PFOS, without any adverse health effects. However, scientific research has shown, even a small amount of PFAS pollutant can have adverse health effects on the human body which is, in my opinion, what led the EPA to reevaluate their 2016 HAs and established significantly lower permissible levels of PFAS pollutant in the 2-liters of daily consumed water.
The final-form rulemaking is a result of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) recent creation of MCLs for PFOS and PFOA. The PA DEP established a MCL for PFOS at 18ng/L and for PFOA at 14ng/L which converts to 18ppt and 14ppt respectively. These MCLs were based off the EPAs 2016 70ppt HAs for PFOS and PFOA. Despite public comments indicating the PA DEPs proposed MCLs were significant and based on outdated HAs from the EPA, the PA DEP seemingly ignored such comments that contained reliable information.
The final-form rulemaking implies the new MCLs will improve public health protection, yet they fail to identify how. Manmade PFAS compounds are considered forever chemicals meaning they can remain in the human body for long periods of time, a lifetime for some. Additionally, with each new exposure, such exposure adds to the existing amount of pollutant in the body therefore increasing the total amount of pollutant in the human body and thus extending the time the amount of compound degrades.
Each PFAS chemical has a half-life which approximates how long the amount of pollutant will take before it degrades to half its amount. Obviously, because of varying factors, we cannot precisely determine how long PFAS chemicals break down in the human body, we can only speculate based on previous studies that resulted in an average amount of time.
One of the chemicals the PA DEP established a MCL for is PFOS, which has an approximate half-life of 3.6 years, meaning an initial level of 1ppt would take 3.6 years to reduce to .5ppt. Using the PA DEPs MCL of 18ppt, should an individual who has never been exposed to PFOS consume 18ppt of pollutant in their drinking water today and never again, it would take approximately 33 years before the PFOS in their body degrades to 9ppt, half of the original amount the individual consumed.
However, should that same individual consumes 18ppt of PFOS today, and every day for the rest of their life as the PA DEP believes is safe to do so without any adverse health effects, in 3.6 years, that individual could have approximately 17,000ppt of PFOS in their body. Of course, the amount of PFOS retained in the human body depends on how much of the toxic chemical their body absorbs and excretes via bodily fluids and waste, as well as if the individual donates blood. Research in Australia has shown, scheduled blood donation over a 12-month period resulted in lowering PFAS in the test subjects blood serum.
While PFAS blood testing is becoming more and more accessible, it can only detect PFAS in serum. Unfortunately, testing methods to detect PFAS in tissues and organs are not available which means we can only guess as to the amount of PFAS in a person’s body based on their blood results.
In my opinion, the PA DEP has failed to adequately consider the health effects of PFAS in drinking water by creating MCLs for PFOS and PFOA higher than the EPAs interim Lifetime Health Advisories. What does this mean for Pennsylvania residents? It means the PA DEP is going to allow significant levels of PFAS in drinking water that will have likely health impacts to those who drink the contaminated water.
At the end of the day, these MCLs do nothing for the public other than to create questions and concerns. For years, the US EPA believed consuming 70ppt of PFAS was safe yet in 2022, after years of scientists, researchers, firefighters like me, and concerned members of the public sending thousands of questions, complaints, and proof of health risks and impacts, the EPA reconsidered their PFAS health advisories and revised them. Will it take similar actions to force states like Pennsylvania to reconsider their ineffective MCLs? Or will it take a certain number of deaths to open the eyes of those in government to act, being reactive rather than proactive.
Everyone on the planet is entitled to safe drinking water so why should states, or more specifically a certain number of individuals who do not have the public’s best interest in mind, be permitted to determine what is considered safe? Man-made chemicals do not belong in our water, ground, or drinking.
