Five Things You Need to Know About PFAS

And Why We Need to Stop Them from Destroying our Earth

What are PFAS?

Since the 1940s, a group of man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, generally referred to as PFAS, has been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the world. They are often called “forever chemicals” because they never break down, they just build up over time. Once introduced to the environment or human body, they stay there, and have been proven to cause health risks to our bodies and ecosystems.

According to the EPA, there are a variety of ways that people can be exposed to these chemicals. In humans, PFAS exposure can come from ingesting contaminated food or water or from prolonged use of a product with PFAS in it (I’ll get into that a bit more in my next video!) However, while there are many ways humans and animals are exposed, contaminated water is the reason PFAS have spread and are now found worldwide.

What Health Effects do they Cause?

There is extensive evidence of the adverse health effects PFAS exposure can cause in humans. So many studies have confirmed that these “forever chemicals” can cause things like infertility (in men and women), increased risk of cancers, higher cholesterol, and decreased vaccine response in children, among other health conditions.

Where are they?

Because “forever chemicals” are all human made, it’s easy to believe that their reach would only extend to areas where humans frequent. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Even some of the most remote locations on the planet aren’t safe from PFAS contamination, as these chemicals have been discovered on Mt. Everest and all over the planet.

How do we Get Rid of them?

There is a reason they’re called “forever chemicals”. PFAS are known as a bioaccumulater, which means they accumulate over time in an organism, making them extremely hard to get rid of. What makes it worse, is that it’s extremely hard to even test for PFAS. This is because even though they’ve been around for 80 years, these chemicals are only just beginning to be part of the conversation. And, ironically, PFAS are often found in bottles and containers, making it even harder to know exactly what’s in that testing tube.

Luckily, there are ways to stop the spread of PFAS once they’ve been tested for. They can be filtered out of drinking water. It’s expensive and time consuming, but it’s a good start. And at Encore Earth, we’re working with filtration companies to help make this process even better. It’s also important to stop using PFAS chemicals in everyday products. Seems like something so simple, but there need to better alternatives first. In order to actually get rid of PFAS, they need to be heated up and incinerated. At Encore Earth, our process collects the PFAS and destroys them, entirely, in a carbon negative process. We need more people to do this as we’re basically fighting a global invisible army.

How Big of a Deal is this? Are People Talking about it?

On Friday, March 26th, news reports announced the following:

  • 2 cities in the US declared the need for bottled water to be used instead of tap water due to finally testing the water and finding it positive for PFAS, with half of the places tested at levels about what the stated considered safe
  • Public health announcements came out about preservative jars having PFAS in them, and also biodegradable drinking straws having PFAS in them
  • The EPA announced that they are again seeking more comments from the public on PFAS removal
  • The DOD testified again about efforts to mitigate and clean up PFAS
  • A city in Massachusetts won a small grant to start treating PFAS in their drinking water
  • And two lawsuits were settled regarding PFAS that have destroyed towns near manufacturing plants

And that’s just March 26.

Every day, there are as many as 30 news articles coming out regarding public health issues, new legal battles, the EPA working hard to clean up the mess, and new cities discovering that their people are being exposed to toxic levels of the chemicals. Cities are beginning to do the hard work of adding filters that can separate PFAS out of drinking water at wastewater treatment plants. This is a great first step.

But what happens to the filters once they are overused? What about all of the water, waste and backwash that ends up in the sludge? That all currently goes right back on the land, into our fertilizer, into the aquifer, and out into the streams and oceans.

At Encore Earth, we’re solving the problem of what happens to the concentrated PFAS after it is rejected from the wastewater treatment plant. We’re not going to let it go back to the land anymore.