More Than 100 Scientists Raise Alarm Over WHO's 'Weak' PFAS Drinking Water Limits
As consumers continue to call for stricter limits around one of the world’s most notorious drinking water contaminants, researchers have voiced concerns over a major health group’s proposal to curb the problem
“More than 110 scientists and regulators worldwide are raising a public alarm over what they label ‘weak’ PFAS drinking water limits proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO), which they charge used shoddy science and ‘arbitrarily’ dismissed hundreds of studies linking the ‘forever chemicals’ to serious health problems,” The Guardian reported. “The limits would allow far more PFAS in drinking water than what is allowed or proposed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, most US states, and some agencies within the EU.”
In recent years, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have emerged as a high-profile drinking water contaminant as their prevalence, durability, and negative health impacts have been studied. Responding to this trend, the U.S. EPA has recently pursued stricter regulations around the contaminants and researchers have attempted to uncover more efficient ways of removing them from influent.
But the scientific response to the latest WHO proposal around PFAS underscore that there is remaining division around the health threat.
“The WHO is proposing drinking water limits of 100 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA and PFOS, two of the most studied PFAS compounds,” according to The Guardian. “The (researchers) say the level will put human health at risk, and the EPA in June imposed new PFOA and PFOS advisory limits of 0.004 ppt and 0.002 ppt, respectively. The agency is expected to make the limits mandatory in the coming months, and some researchers suspect the WHO is aiming to derail the effort.”
Ultimately, the scientists’ pushback stems from an apparent failure to acknowledge the growing evidence that consumption of PFAS leads to acute health consequences, including fatal conditions.
“The scientists illustrate how the (WHO) draft’s survey of scientific studies omits or obscures evidence of the links between PFOS and PFOA exposure and cancer, liver damage, increased cholesterol, and immune system harms, among others,” per Technology Networks. “For these outcomes, there are numerous strong human studies finding links with very low levels of exposure to these two and to other PFAS. These links are further supported by numerous animal and mechanistic studies.”
The researchers have also suggested that WHO’s guidelines may have been influenced by industrial leaders who have a vested interest in pushing weaker PFAS limits.
“Some independent researchers say evidence suggests industry-connected authors played a large role in developing WHO’s limits and justifications,” The Guardian reported.
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