How to remove PFA from drinking water – and eliminate it

EWG’s Stoiber and her colleagues are focusing on consumer-grade water filtration systems available in the US. Organizational testing has discovered common pitcher filters from brands such as Brita and Berkey Not all remove PFA equally. However, some do great work based on EWG tests, such as the pitcher filter system created by US-based Epic Water Filters.

“I think PFA is the number one contaminant that we get feedback on what our customers are worried about,” says Joel Stevens, co-founder of Epic Water Filters. The filters his company makes are made so that water materials contain carbon blocks. “Thousands of layers of thousands of carbon fiber wrapped around the block,” he explains. As water passes through these fibers, carbon removes PFA and other contaminants, including chlorine and lead.

In about three months, the company will launch a new pitcher filter that can remove heavy metals and fluorides. Fluoride is added to water in some regions to improve dental health, but some people drink it for a potential link between fluoride and harmful neurological effects You wouldn’t want to. Scientific analysis suggests However, the risks from tap water in countries such as the United States are very low.

Stoiber said there are some very effective water filter products, but many people still throw used filters in the trash cans. This means that you will eventually end up in a landfill where PFA can leach back into the environment.

Epic Water Filters customers can return used filters to the company. “The filters are then sent to a special recycling centre where the plastic is recycled and the internal filters are incinerated,” Stevens said in a follow-up email.

Stoiber’s research suggests the incineration of several forms of PFAS material Can release harmful compounds In the environment. “We still don’t have good disposal recommendations for used treatment media,” she says. However, it is possible to destroy the compounds of PFA. Very high temperatureit can reach 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,730 f). Some researchers are currently investigating how chemical additives such as granular activated carbon can be produced. Reduces the amount of heat required Decomposes PFAS compounds.

There is another problem with the current approach to PFA. “Community-level drinking water treatment is what is needed at this point, because the cost shouldn’t be on the individual,” Stoiber says. “People who have filters, people who are not exposed, they shouldn’t be unfair.”

Some US drinking water facilities currently have large-scale PFAS filtration technologies installed; Tampa, Florida, etc.the cost of doing this nationwide We were able to spiral over billionsaccording to some analyses. Stoiber says that the most effective strategy to avoid PFAS contamination is not to use these chemicals in the first place, but countless companies still do.

For now, there is a risk that the Trump administration could undermine new US water regulations that require the removal of some PFA molecules from tap water, Stoiber said. “We’re fighting to protect the Drinking Water Act that has just passed,” she says. “I think every eye is in it.”