Understanding PFAS

Per- and polyfluoralkyl substances, man-made chemicals more commonly known as PFAS, have been used globally since the 1940s in a variety of industrial and commercial products. PFAS resist heat and repel oil and water, so they are found in such products as firefighting foams, stain- and water-resistant coatings, and non-stick coatings.

The same properties that make PFAS useful for industrial and consumer products make them difficult to degrade and very persistent in the environment, leading to PFAS being found literally everywhere on earth. Because of this persistence, it is not unusual for some PFAS to be found anywhere, including our drinking water.

High exposures to two of the most common and most-studied PFAS compounds, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) have been associated with several health conditions in laboratory tests. Out of an abundance of caution, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established a health advisory for PFOA and PFOS and have now proposed enforceable Maximum Contaminant levels (MCLs) in drinking water even though additional research is needed in order to determine if definitive epidemiological effects exist and how they are related to exposure to PFOA and PFOS (as well as the over 4,000 other PFAS compounds known to exist).

Since an initial testing in 2020 by SC Department of Health and Environmental Control, Columbia Water continues to proactively sample for per- and polyfluoralkyl substances in our drinking water every six months and you can view those results here: https://columbiascwater.net/pfas/.

EPA estimates that 80% of exposure to PFAS comes from consumer products and assumes that 20% comes from drinking water and their health-effect estimates are based on the idea that individuals drink 2.5 liters of impacted water per day, 365 days/year for 70 years (lifetime exposure).