Two decades after pollution from highly toxic fluorinated chemicals was first reported in American communities and drinking water, the number of known contamination sites is growing rapidly, with no end in sight.
The latest update of an interactive map by Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute at Northeastern University documents publicly known pollution from so-called PFAS chemicals at 94 industrial or military sites in 22 states.
"States are stepping up to set cleanup standards, but a national crisis demands a national response.
The two most notorious members of the family—PFOA, formerly used to make DuPont’s Teflon, and PFOS, formerly in 3M’s Scotchgard—are now banned in the U.S., but manufacturers have replaced them with chemically similar, largely untested compounds that may be no safer.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PFAS chemicals contaminate the blood of virtually all Americans.
About 10 miles away, a woman who lives across the street from a Wolverine dump site has 750 times as much PFOS in her blood as the average American.
In addition to contamination from industrial and military sites, the map also shows where an EPA-mandated testing program detected PFOA, PFOS and similar chemicals in public drinking water supplies.
The EPA tests found PFAS contamination of systems serving 16.1 million Americans in 33 states.
More recent tests have found tap water in North Carolina and West Virginia contaminated with a new PFAS chemical called GenX, which DuPont’s own studies found causes cancer in lab animals.
https://t.co/nRutVOwpFf @Greenpeace @Sierra_Magazine — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) 1497577506.0 The EPA has no legal limits for PFOA and PFOS in drinking water, only a non-enforceable health advisory level of 70 ppt for either chemical or the two combined.