Whether you're walking into your home, school, or grocery store, you're likely surrounded by PFAs (per and polyfluoroalkyl substances), a type of synthetic chemical used in the manufacturing of products such as non-stick cookware, fast food containers, cosmetics, and fabrics made for stain resistance. These products and the materials for which they are made, cannot be recycled nor composted, therefore permanently staying in the air, water, soil, and even our human bloodstreams, making them known by most as 'forever chemicals'.
For example, grocery stores sell items packaged in materials that are coated in PFAs to resist grease and moisture causing it to leach into your food. Furthermore, in schools, old infrastructure can sometimes allow PFAs to leach into drinking fountains, and local fire departments are facing pressure to switch to PFA-free foams, which are both safer and more available. Studies such as that from Environmental Science and Technology Letters also show us that over 57,000 locations in the United States, are hot spots for PFAs, including airports, military bases, and factories.
In some towns in the US, the tap water itself is contaminated. This was recently discovered in a study made by the National Library of Medicine in 2023 where researchers found record-breaking PFA levels in groundwater near US military bases due to the heavy use of firefighting foam. Near the bases are usually small rural towns and Indigenous communities, who become the hardest hit by this contamination as they do not have the political power or funding to demand an immediate cleanup.
In 2024 the EPA issued the first ever national legally enforceable drinking water standard. This mandate was put into place to help vulnerable communities who are consistently exposed to toxic water. However, due to the change in Presidential administration, the agency announced this year that these plans will be delayed until 2031.