The agency says the move will protect 100 million people from PFAS exposure.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced a new rule mandating the first-ever national standard for the presence of so-called "forever chemicals" in drinking water.
The chemicals break down very slowly, allowing them to build up in people, animals and the environment over time -- hence the nickname, "forever chemicals." One billion dollars in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be available to help states and territories with testing and treatment for PFAS as they work to come into compliance over the next few years.
PFAS exposure has been linked to increases in cholesterol, changes in liver enzymes and pregnancy complications like preeclampsia, among other issues, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."Every single person in the United States is walking around with PFAS in their bodies," Olson said. "The risks are very real. These EPA rules will start the process of controlling the risks from tap water.
Many communities in North Carolina have been impacted by heavy PFAS contamination in the Cape Fear River due to decades of chemical dumping in the water by the companies DuPont and Chemours. "There's still only six that EPA is regulating, which is a good step, but they are 14,000 of these PFAS," Olson said. "So, we're taking a bite out of the problem, but we really need to regulate this whole class of toxic chemicals together because if we keep regulating them a few at a time, we're just never going to get off the toxic treadmill and never going to catch up with all the new chemicals the industry keeps producing and exposing us to.
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