Read the full article by Tom Perkins (The Guardian)
“About 70 million people are exposed to toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in US drinking water, new testing from the Environmental Protection Agency has found.
But the testing completed to date has only checked about one-third of the nation’s public water systems, meaning the agency is on pace to find over 200 million people are exposed, or at least 60% of the US population.
The figure does not include private wells, and the federal government previously estimated about 8 million people who draw water from those are exposed to PFAS.
The EPA’s continuing testing is the first comprehensive nationwide assessment aimed at understanding the scale of PFAS contamination in US drinking water. So far, the government figures match up with independent estimates that found about 200 million people drink tainted water, and the widespread contamination cuts across geographic and socioeconomic boundaries.
‘As we get more data in from water systems, we’re seeing PFAS is pretty prevalent in US drinking water supplies, and we’re seeing more and more people are exposed in states across the US,’ said Jared Hayes, a policy analyst with the Environmental Working Group non-profit, which tracks PFAS pollution.” …