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PFAS: A hazard lurking within your community

KEVIN FERRARA

Lock Haven

PFAS is an acronym you’ve likely never heard of. It stands for Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

PFAS are man-made, “forever” chemicals found in thousands of consumer products, such as non-stick cookware and food packaging like pizza boxes, stain resistant carpet and clothing, cosmetics like waterproof mascaras and eyeliners, and shampoo, sunscreen, and shaving creams just to name a few.

The word forever is used because one drop of PFAS remains in the human body for several decades.

If you’ve been reading media headlines and reports across the nation, you’ve seen drinking water pollution is on the rise as are kidney and testicular cancer rates, and immune disease and serious illnesses in individuals, particularly children living on or near military installations. Many of these increases are correlated to PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid), and PFOS (Perfluorooctane sulfonate), two chemicals in the larger PFAS chemical family.

In addition to consumer products, PFAS chemicals are found in industrial products such as implantable medical devices, catheter tubes, surgical meshes, sterile container filters, and needle retrieval systems to name a few. Additionally, PFAS chemicals are found in firefighting foam. Firefighting foam, commonly called AFFF (Aqueous Film Forming Foam) contains PFOA and PFOS and is found at nearly every U.S. military installation and commercial airport fire department.

Routes of PFAS exposure vary. Firefighters are typically exposed through their skin by direct contact with AFFF and their Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which recently, has been found to contain PFAS. The public is typically exposed by handling products manufactured with PFAS chemicals or unknowingly ingesting drinking water or consuming food contaminated with PFAS.

In 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a PFAS Health Advisory (HA) of 70 parts-per trillion (ppt).

With difficulty putting into perspective what 1ppt looks like, the scale of this issue is often considered insignificant.

However, when you consider one 1ppt is equivalent to one drop of impurity in 32 Olympic sized swimming pools or 336 million 8oz glasses of water, the issue no longer seems insignificant rather it is extraordinary. 70ppt of PFAS, the EPA’s threshold, results in surge of 2,226 Olympic sized swimming pools or 23.5 billion 8oz glasses of water being contaminated.

On average, a single individual drinks 1,095 glasses of water a year.

For one military installation in Virginia, PFAS contamination is recorded at 2,225,000 ppt. In New Mexico, the amount of PFAS contamination recorded at Cannon Air Force Base has such an impact that several drinking water wells for the local community have been shut down.

Local airports like Williamsport and State College possess and use AFFF. Additionally, municipal fire departments also possess and use the product.

On occasion, fire departments, many locally, use firefighting foam during house fires without containment. Foam runoff from these type of incidents have been known to seep into ground and water sources such as drinking wells.

Despite many water filter manufactures claiming their systems can remove a vast array of pollutants, only a few can reduce PFAS, not completely remove it.

Any level of contamination is uncertain unless a proper test for impurities is made. PFAS tests are expensive and time consuming, which is why most communities, especially those in rural areas have yet to be documented.

There is an absence of federal and state legislation regarding the use of AFFF during emergencies, training, or agencies wanting to get rid of it. In its current form, the EPA’s Health Advisory is nothing more than mere guidance with no teeth to hold those responsible for PFAS contamination criminally liable.

Due to this lack of legislation, fire departments, product manufacturers, suppliers, and end-users can continue to cause contamination without being held accountable.

Frequently, and often intentionally, end-users are misled and unaware of the hazards.

Despite the lack of criminal enforcement, there are civil means that could hold individuals and or agencies accountable.

AFFF manufacturers such as 3M and DuPont as well as the Department of Defense (DoD) are currently being sued for their association with PFAS contamination.

It is anticipated the cost to clean up contamination at or near military sites will be over $2 billion.

That’s on top of the several hundred million dollars the DoD has already paid to affected communities for bottled drinking water because local drinking water systems are so contaminated.

Since the product was created by the Navy over 60 years ago, the DoD led military firefighters to believe AFFF was nothing more than soap and water, an assumption echoed by many fire emergency services (FES) today, some locally.

So deceived, military members used AFFF to wash their uniforms, their vehicles, sprayed foam onto innocent children during fire prevention visits to schools because they were continually told AFFF was not hazardous. Today, FES agencies and officials, some locally, argue hazards associated with AFFF are nothing more than theories.

Fortunately, scientific proof defeats those arguments as does documentation from the DoD indicating they knew of the hazards associated with AFFF since the 1970s but kept it quiet.

In southeast Pennsylvania, decades passed as residents in Bucks and Montgomery counties watched their families suffer from brain tumors, various types of cancer, and other health issues. For years, those families couldn’t understand why they and their children were sick.

Doctors had limited if any knowledge of what PFAS was at the time and therefore could not properly provide a diagnosis.

Documented evidence shows PFAS contamination from military installations in Warminster and Horsham was not a theory, rather it was real and caused by AFFF polluting adjacent drinking water sources.

Across the country, similar reports are being exposed.

Yet, individuals to include public officials continue to dispute the overwhelming evidence, some refusing to speak about the concerns.

As of May 2019, 17 sites in Pennsylvania have been found to contain levels of PFAS higher than the EPA’s 70ppt threshold. Only because of the national interest involving PFAS and water contamination, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the EPA are increasing investigations of suspected contamination throughout the state to include several local sites here in Central Pennsylvania.

Despite having the authority to create and implement regulatory actions regarding PFAS, as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Wolf issuing an executive order and creating a PFAS Task Force in 2018, very little if anything to stop or enforce PFAS contamination has been implemented and or accomplished.

Despite what some may say, the national crisis involving PFAS has and continues to affect local communities.

Offers have been made by subject matter experts to inform local officials about the hazards associated with PFAS and AFFF; unfortunately, those offers have been repeatedly ignored.

PFAS contamination is preventable but only if officials including FES personnel acknowledge PFAS and AFFF hazards and assume a proactive approach to ensure future contamination does not occur.

Next time you drink a glass of water, ask yourself if it might contain PFAS.

This information is not to incite fear, rather it is to address the national crisis that many officials who have the power to do something continue to ignore, a crisis that has quietly seeped into our local communities.

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