Detection of Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) in U.S. Drinking Water Linked to Industrial Sites, Military Fire Training Areas, and Wastewater Treatment Plants
By Xindi C. Hu, David Q. Andrews, A. Lindstrom, T. Bruton, L. Schaider, P. Grandjean, R. Lohmann, Courtney C. Carignan, A. Blum, Simona A. Bălan and 2 more. Environmental Science and Technology Letters, 2016
1,144 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Drinking water contamination with poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) poses risks to the developmental, immune, metabolic, and endocrine health of consumers. We present a spatial analysis of 2013–2015 national drinking water PFAS concentrations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (US EPA) third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3) program. The number of industrial sites that manufacture or use these compounds, the number of military fire training areas, and the number of wastewater treatment plants are all significant predictors of PFAS detection frequencies and concentrations in public water supplies. Among samples with detectable PFAS levels, each additional military site within a watershed’s eight-digit hydrologic unit is associated with a 20% increase in PFHxS, a 10% increase in both PFHpA and PFOA, and a 35% increase in PFOS. The number of civilian airports with personnel trained in the use of aqueous film-forming foams is significantly associated with the detection of PFASs above the minimal reporting level. We find drinking water supplies for 6 million U.S. residents exceed US EPA’s lifetime health advisory (70 ng/L) for PFOS and PFOA. Lower analytical reporting limits and additional sampling of smaller utilities serving <10000 individuals and private wells would greatly assist in further identifying PFAS contamination sources.
Subfields: Environmental Chemistry, Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7bc97384228bd1faff3d8dd912b8d5f0dcb52412
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In Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Citations in the corpus
- Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in water and wastewater: A critical review of their global occurrence and distribution (2021, background): “Source: Hu et al. (2016).”
- PFAS Exposure Pathways for Humans and Wildlife: A Synthesis of Current Knowledge and Key Gaps in Understanding (2020, background): “One study reported the presence of 16 fluorochemical manufacturing plants in the United States (Hu et al. 2016), and another estimated that there were 33 fluoropolymer production plants worldwide as of 2002 (Prevedouros et al. 2006).”