EPA Sets New Health Standard For PFOA At 70 Parts Per Trillion

by Alex Brooks
On Thursday May 19, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a revised health advisory for PFOA and PFOS, which establishes 70 parts per trillion as the standard. Water with a greater concentration than 70 parts per trillion should not be used on a long-term basis as drinking water.[private]While the EPA fact sheet does not go so far as to say that drinking water with 60 parts per trillion of PFOA in it is perfectly safe, they say things like this: “This health advisory level offers a margin of protection for all Americans throughout their life from adverse health efforts resulting from exposure to PFOA and PFOS in drinking water.”
There is extensive supporting documentation that was released along with the Health Advisory fact sheet. It is clear that the EPA has done a lot of scientific research before setting this new standard, but it is extremely difficult for someone who is not a trained professional toxicologist to determine whether the standard of safety employed by the EPA is what we would like it to be or not.
The EPA said its health advisory is “based on the best available peer-reviewed studies of the effects of PFOA and PFOS on laboratory animals (rats and mice) and were also informed by epidemiological studies of human populations that have been exposed to PFASs. These studies indicate that exposure to PFOA and PFOS over certain levels may result in adverse health effects, including developmental effects to fetuses during pregnancy or to breastfed infants (e.g., low birth weight, accelerated puberty, skeletal variations), cancer (e.g., testicular, kidney), liver effects (e.g., tissue damage), immune effects (e.g., antibody production and immunity), thyroid effects and other effects (e.g., cholesterol changes).”
There is wide agreement that higher doses of PFOA are likely to result in adverse health effects such as those listed above, but when it comes to long term exposure to a dose of say, 50 parts per trillion in drinking water, the science is not yet precise enough to say. Maine has established a standard of 10 parts per trillion. Vermont’s standard is 20 parts per trillion.
Saint-Gobain has challenged Vermont’s standard in court, contending that it is not justified by the science. Other US states and European countries have widely varying standards. Delaware’s standard is 400 parts per trillion; Michigan’s is 420 ppt; Minnesota’s is 300 ppt; New Jersey has established a standard of 40 parts per trillion. The German Ministry of Health and the Danish Ministry of the Environment have both established a standard of 300 parts per trillion.
The EPA fact sheet discusses some of the ways that Americans are exposed to PFOA aside from drinking water. It said, “Because these chemicals have been used in an array of consumer products, most people have been exposed to them…Scientists have found PFOA and PFOS in the blood of nearly all the people they tested, but these studies show that the levels of PFOA and PFOS in blood have been decreasing.” PFOA exposure could come from carpets, clothing, furniture, snack food packaging, non-stick cookware, or other things. PFOA can be ingested from a wide variety of foods, including fish, potatoes, and vegetables. However, the EPA’s fact sheet does not provide much guidance on how these kinds of exposures compare to that from drinking water with 50 parts per trillion of PFOA in it.
The immediate effect of the EPA release of the new Health Advisory is that Taconic will now pay for filtration systems on any home in Petersburgh with water testing at 70 parts per trillion or higher, while previously they would pay only if the water had 100 ppt or higher. But from a nationwide perspective, it does set the bar considerably higher than the 2009 Health Advisory which set a standard of 400 parts per trillion, and as more water systems across the country are tested, many more will have to take remedial action to lower PFOA content.