June 24th is the official start date for the new EPA rule to reduce PFAs (forever chemicals) in our drinking water. But that doesn’t mean your water will be safe then! Upgrading the necessary municipal water system filters will take five years and cost $1.5 billion per year. On top of that, the EPA has already been sued by municipal water companies and chemical manufacturers, so removing PFAs could be delayed even more.
The current EPA limit for PFAs is 70 parts per trillion. They have discovered that this level is extremely unsafe for us to drink. There have been thousands of documented cases of Americans getting sick and even dying from cancer caused by PFAs in their drinking water. It’s so bad that 3M, the manufacturer of Post-Its, just agreed to pay $10 billion to clean up and remove PFAs that they introduced to our drinking water. Estimates are that 200 million Americans are exposed to unsafe levels of PFAs in their drinking water every day.
So, the new EPA rule will reduce the allowable amount to four parts per trillion. However, municipal water companies couldn’t meet the previous PFA limit. At 70 parts per trillion, A USA Today analysis discovered that more than 1200 local water providers had PFAs measured above that amount! The areas most impacted were the Midwest’s urban areas with the most manufacturers. Furthermore, the EPA relied on those municipal water companies to self-report, meaning there was room to fudge the numbers. The reality is PFA drinking water levels, and exposure could be much worse!
PFAs are considered forever chemicals because they hardly break down over time. They accumulate in our environment and in our bodies, disrupting those systems. In our bodies, PFAs are linked to low birth rates, accelerated puberty, bone variations, and behavioral changes. Plus, they increase our chances of getting prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers. Furthermore, they weaken our immune systems and even reduce the effectiveness of vaccines against major diseases!
The Biden administration approved $9 billion to address this PFA problem, underlining the seriousness of this matter. If you are not using a multistage water filtration system like what you find in our water ionizers, you are risking your quality of life and your children’s development, and you may even get cancer and die.
