‘Forever chemicals’ found in drinking water sources across England

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨GreyShuck@feddit.uk⁩ to ⁨unitedkingdom@feddit.uk⁩

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/28/forever-chemicals-found-in-drinking-water-sources-across-england

Potentially toxic “forever chemicals” have been detected in the drinking water sources at 17 of 18 England’s water companies, with 11,853 samples testing positive, something experts say they are “extremely alarmed” by.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – a group of 10,000 or so human-made chemicals widely used in industrial processes, firefighting foams and consumer products – were found in samples of raw and treated water tested by water companies last year, according to the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI), the Guardian and Watershed Investigations has found.

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snacks@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
invented by Teflon as a water proofing coating for ww2 tanks, PFAS was repackaged and sold as kitchen utensil coating since the 1950s and featured in the 2019 film Dark Water. Teflon knew about its carcinogenic nature as its own employees died or had deformed children. The chemical is present in every human on the planet and its passed through reproductive systems.

cheerful stuff

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- Akuchimoya@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  If you donate blood, you also remove the PFAS in that blood too. Donating blood is an altruistic act (at least in Canada, you cannot be paid for it), but it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a little side benefit. Blood letting is sometimes still a legitimate therapy for specific things.
  
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  - rosymind@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    The problem is with how wide-spread it is, even if you get rid of it through blood donation you’re still going to pick it back up again by eating and drinking. There’s no escaping it; what we need is to stop using it, and figure out how to properly remove it from the environment.
    
    It’s tough, though, because many daily use items in every industry and household contains them.
    
    For now, the best we can do is avoid items made with them (to the best of our knowledge), filter all our water, avoid food sources known to contain high amounts of it, and spread the word
    
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  - snacks@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    something wrong with the logic. Donating blood might remove it from you but its going in somone else?
    
    im also not convinced donating blood removes anything if its in your pancreas.
    
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Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I'm surprised that literally anybody is surprised by the headline that a chemical that is incredibly stable and long-lived (the very reason for using them), and widely used in many different industries and even in home products has ended up everywhere.
With enough time to spread about, this was always going to be the case.

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autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:

Some PFAS, including PFOS and PFOA, which are now mostly banned, have been linked to cancers, thyroid disease, immune system and fertility problems as well as developmental defects in unborn children.

The DWI says the “dangers of PFAS have become a growing concern due to their persistence in the environment, ability to accumulate in the human body, and potential health effects”.

“The report shows that there are people who are drinking medium-risk water,” said Stephanie Metzger, a policy adviser at the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC).

“We don’t think anyone should be drinking medium-risk water … the toxicology data shows the risk of health effects becoming more over time as PFAS builds up in our body,” said Metzger.

Dr Clare Cavers from the environmental charity Fidra, described the findings as “extremely alarming, in particular as the acceptable limit set by the DWI for the banned toxic forever chemical PFOS is much higher than in other parts of the world”.

A Water UK spokesperson said companies “adhere to high standards set by regulators, with virtually all samples meeting their strict tests”.

The original article contains 1,102 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

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JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I’m just curious: do these forever chemicals accumulate in our bodies from the food we eat, or are they able to if given water that has been contaminated?

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- rosymind@leminal.space ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  They’re in water, anything that uses that water, and cumulatively collected.
  
  Not that I advocate eating whale, but people who eat whale are very likely to have high PFAs and should limit their consumption
  
  Almost all of us have them in our bodies. They disrupt the immune system, particularly the parts that help remove cancer cells. Cancer of the liver, panceas and I forgot which other… (testicular maybe?) are the most common cancers to get from pfas exposure
  
  Women/birthing people pass their pfas on to their children
  
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  - JadenSmith@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Thank you for your absolutely terrifying, yet honest and true answer.
    
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Th4tGuyII@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I'm surprised that literally anybody is surprised by the headline that a chemical that is incredibly stable and long-lived (the very reason for using them), and widely used in many different industries and even in home products has ended up everywhere.
With enough time to spread about, this was always going to be the case.

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