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EPA To Limit PFAS Chemical Contaminants Found In Some Ohio Valley Water Systems

This story was updated at 4:15 p.m.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will move forward with a series of actions to regulate toxic fluorinated chemicals, including proposing drinking water limits by the end of this year. But environment and public health advocates say that timeline is unacceptable.

In its long-awaited “PFAS Action Plan,” EPA laid out a series of actions to address the widespread contamination of fluorinated PFAS chemicals. Those chemicals include PFOA, or C8, which has been detected in several water systems in the Ohio Valley. The chemicals were used in a variety of products, including non-stick cookware, stain resistant clothing, and flame retardants.

Some municipalities in Ohio and West Virginia have been dealing with C-8 contamination for decades, and a court-ordered health monitoring program in the Ohio Valley linked exposure to a variety of health risks.

“This action plan represents a pivotal moment in the history of the agency and a pivotal moment for public health environmental protection,” said EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler, speaking at a press conference in Philadelphia. “This is the most comprehensive cross-agency action plan for a chemical of concern ever undertaken by the agency.”

Among the actions outlined in the plan, EPA said it will:

“Propose a regulatory determination,” or take the next step to determine a Maximum Contaminant Level, or MCL, for PFOA and PFOS.
Continue enforcement actions (EPA has already done eight).
Clarify cleanup strategies for PFAS contamination and soon release interim groundwater cleanup recommendations for contaminated sites.
Expand research into the human health and ecological effects of exposure, how PFAS chemicals spread and how best to remove them from the environment.
Continue the process to of adding PFAS under the Superfund law.
Consider placing PFAS chemicals in the Toxics Release Inventory, a publicly available database containing information on chemical releases and other waste management activities.
Develop a plan to better communicate the risk to the public of exposure to these chemicals.

EPA’s plan was met with enthusiasm by some groups dealing with PFAS contamination. The National Ground Water Association, an Ohio-based trade group, said it was pleased with the agency’s actions to list PFAS chemicals as hazardous substances under the federal Superfund law. Once listed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, states affected by the chemical contamination will be able to receive federal help holding polluters accountable.

The group also praised the agency’s decision to move forward with the regulatory process for creating drinking water standards for two PFAS chemicals frequently found in drinking water, PFOA and PFOS.

Concerns Surface

As more details emerged from the agency, however, environmental groups and some lawmakers expressed concern about the agency’s timeline for setting drinking water standards.

“It has taken the EPA nearly a year just to kick the can even further down the road,” said Senator Tom Carper, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

In a statement, Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia was more measured. Capito has repeatedly met with EPA Acting Administrator Wheeler on the PFAS issue and last week joined a bipartisan group of senators to urge the agency head to set a standard.

“It’s encouraging to see the EPA taking action to address something that has proven to be a real problem in a number of communities across the country—including in West Virginia,” Capito said. She added she intends to “remain actively engaged to push EPA to complete the process expeditiously and put that standard in place.”

In a call with reporters, Dave Ross, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Water, stressed the agency will go through the rulemaking process set out by the Safe Drinking Water Act. That will include using the most up-to-date science and taking public comment.

“We are going to move as quickly as we possibly can to do this,” Ross said, adding that whatever EPA proposes will likely be challenged in court. “So we will move with all deliberate speed.”

Potential Delays

But what that speed could look like is “up in the air,” said Genna Reed, lead science and policy analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Safe Drinking Water Act gives EPA the authority to create drinking water standards for chemicals. MCLs set legally enforceable limits on the amount of a substance allowed in public drinking water systems.

In order to consider setting an MCL for a chemical, the agency must prove the pollutant adversely affects public health, is widespread in public water systems, and that regulation would reduce health risk.

EPA committed to starting that process in its action plan. Reed said now the agency will begin the process of filtering through the science surrounding these chemicals, a process she fears could face interference by political appointees at the agency who have ties to the chemical industry.

EPA’s Deputy Assistant Administrator for Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Nancy Beck, formerly worked at the American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group. The White House’s nominee to head EPA’s Office of Land and Energy Management, which manages the Superfund program, is former Dow Chemical Co. counsel, Peter Wright.

“There absolutely could be a determination that PFOS and PFOA should not be regulated under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which we would argue is perhaps not in line with the best available science,” she said. “So, it’s really important to follow and see what the EPA does here and to make sure that they’re consulting with their science staff and really listening to what they’re saying on these two chemicals.”

Currently, EPA has issued a health advisory for the chemicals of 70 parts-per-trillion, but some states, including New Jersey, have adopted lower acceptable contamination levels.

During his Thursday press conference, EPA Acting Administrator Wheeler said the agency is already taking enforcement actions to cleanup contaminated drinking water if levels are higher than the health advisory recommendation.

Reed, with the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted if a MCL is created for PFOA and PFOS, it would trigger much more monitoring. For example, water systems would be required to provide water quality reports showing how much of these chemicals are found in their systems.

Uncertain Risks

Public health advocates also raise questions about continued exposure to potentially unsafe levels of PFAS chemicals while the agency considers creating drinking water standards.

The Environmental Working Group estimates 110 million Americans drink water with dangerous PFAS levels. EPA estimates PFAS have been found in the blood of 98 percent of Americans.

A report released last year by theAgency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), found PFAS chemicals can endanger human health at levels 7 to 10 times lower than the EPA says is safe.

The report, ortoxicological profile, draws upon the best available research. At 852 pages, it is aimed at giving public health officials a comprehensive picture of how fluorinated chemicals may affect human health as well as highlight the different ways people may be exposed to them.

The study finds people are exposed to fluorinated chemicals in a variety of ways including through contaminated soil and water, food packaging laced with the chemicals, and some more directly by living near plants that manufacturedC8.

It also finds exposure to high levels of some fluorinated chemicals may affect fertility, increase cholesterol levels and increase the risk of thyroid disease.

David Andrews, senior scientist with Environmental Working Group, said there is already an overwhelming body of scientific evidence about the health impacts of PFOA and PFOS, informed largely by a study conducted in the Ohio Valley following a settlement agreement with DuPont.

“At this point there is close to or over 100 studies of their impact on human health really indicating the potential to cause impacts to our immune system, reproduction, development as well as all the other health effects including cancer, impacts on liver, kidney,” Andrews said. “Really, it’s just an incredible range of our bodies’ functions that these chemicals can really interrupt and disrupt.”

He noted the agency’s new plan does not address the thousands of other chemicals in the PFAS class, many of which researchers know little about. In the United States, more than 600 PFAS chemicals are allowed for use. EPA said it intends to do toxicity assessments for a handful.

“It was very much unclear what if any action they would take for other chemicals in this class,” Andrews said.

Cincinnati-based attorney Rob Bilott, who successfully brought at class action lawsuit representing more than 70,000 people against DuPont for its dumping of C8, said EPA has for years shrugged off taking action and this latest plan followed the pattern. During the course of the litigation, which lasted more than two decades, internal communications from DuPont were made public that showed the company knew about the chemical’s health effects since the 1950s.

In 2001, Bilott wrote to the EPA detailing what DuPont knew. Fifteen years later the agency released its health advisory.

“EPA has been promising to address the serious public health threat posed by PFAS chemical exposures for almost 20 years,” Bilott said. “Promising to conduct more studies, investigations and further work toward formal regulatory action at some point in the future, is not the same as actually taking formal regulatory action now.”

The agency said it will “explore” placing PFAS chemicals on its Toxics Release Inventory. If completed, that would allow for better tracking of how they are released into the environment.

EPA’s action plan states it intends to include PFAS in next Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, or UCMR. During the last round of testing, EPA found that 1.3 percent of the public water systems monitored had concentrations of PFOA and PFOS that were greater than the agency’s health advisory limit.

When asked at what level the agency would screen for PFAS chemicals, Wheeler said career staff would make that determination.

Plan to Manage Toxic 'Teflon' Chemicals Delayed by Shutdown — EPA Nominee

During a sometimes contentious confirmation hearing Wednesday on his nomination to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler was pressed by members of the Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works about the impact of the government shutdown on the agency as well as his beliefs on climate change.

Wheeler noted one casualty of the ongoing partial government shutdown, now in its fourth week, is that a long-awaited long-awaited plan on regulating the PFAS group of chemicals has been delayed.

Fluorinated PFAS chemicals include PFOA, or C8, which has been detected in several water systems in the Ohio Valley. Some municipalities in Ohio and West Virginia have been dealing with C8 contamination for decades.

“Our PFAS management plan we were hoping to unveil it next week with the shutdown it’s going to be delayed slightly,” Wheeler told the committee. “It’s in the middle of interagency review.”

EPA has previously said the management plan would recommend whether some of these widely-used toxic chemicals used to make non-stick items should be declared “hazardous” under the federal Superfund law.

If the agency takes this step, it could gives states more options for cleaning up contamination.

The agency has said it is also considering whether it should set legally-enforceable limits for PFAS in drinking water, a move that has garnered bipartisan support.

Ranking Committee Member Tom Carper (D-Del.) pushed Wheeler to commit to the action, as did West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore-Capito (R).

In an exchange, Capito said she “couldn’t tell” from Wheeler’s earlier statements on the PFAS plan if the document would contain drinking water limits.

“We are going to be recommending and moving forward on a number of different areas under a number of different statutes we’re looking at on the water side as well as the CERCLA [Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act], Superfund side and the TSCA [Toxic Substances Control Act] program as well,” he said. “This is going to be, when it comes out, our management plan, a multimedia approach to dealing with PFAS/PFOA.”

“So, that’s a no?” Capito asked.

“I can’t go into the specifics of what’s in the plan because it’s currently in interagency review,” Wheeler replied.

PFAS Priority

Wheeler’s comments come after months of EPA efforts to highlight the issue. Last year, the agency held a nationwide meeting on PFAS contamination and a series of public listening sessions across the country.

Some environmental groups have expressed concern the agency will downplay the issue given the Trump Administration’s goal to roll back many environmental regulations.

Last year, a draft report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a part of the Centers for Disease Control, was blocked by federal officials.

It found these fluorinated chemicals can endanger human health at levels 7 to 10 times lower than the EPA’s current recommended exposure limits.

The agency’s point person for the PFAS plan, Peter Grevatt, director of EPA’s Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water, retired from the EPA in December.

The Murray Connection

Wheeler also faced tough questions from Democrats on his beliefs over climate change and the extent to which, if confirmed, the EPA under his leadership would focus on reducing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions. Multiple lawmakers pointed to several high-profile rules issued by the agency last year — including the Affordable Clean Energy Rule and Clean Car Rule — where EPA’s own analysis shows carbon emissions will increase.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse a Democrat from Rhode Island questioned the nominee on his relationship with his most recent former employer — coal company Murray Energy.

After leaving the Senate in 2009, Wheeler worked as a lobbyist for at the D.C.-based law firm and lobby shop Faegre Baker Daniels. One of his clients was Murray Energy. During the hearing, Wheeler said for the last four years he worked with Murray Energy he worked exclusively to shore up the pension fund for the United Mine Workers.

Murray has been an outspoken critic of the Obama administration’s EPA and its efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Weeks after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Murray gave the White House a wish list of environmental rollbacks, many of which have now been completed.

Whitehouse sought more information on Wheeler’s involvement in the so-called “Murray Action Plan,” including whether he sought a meeting with then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.

“Can you tell me now how many meetings with ta officials for Bob Murray did you arrange, attempt to arrange or attend and with whom?” Whitehouse asked.

After prodding, Wheeler said two — a March 2017 meeting with Energy Secretary Rick Perry and one at the White House. He reiterated he had not attended nor set a meeting at EPA to discuss the plan.

The response did not seem to satisfy Whitehouse.

“I don’t want to play ‘gotcha’ with you,” he said. “What I do want is true, factual complete answers from you.”

Toxic 'Teflon' Chemicals On EPA Regulatory Agenda

Environmental Protection Agency officials told a Congressional panel Thursday that the agency will announce by the end of the year whether it will take the next step to regulate a group of toxic fluorinated chemicals found in some water systems in the Ohio Valley.

The PFAS group of chemicals, which include PFOA or C-8, were widely used to make nonstick products and flame retardants and have been detected in at least 10 water systems in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. Exposure has been linked to a number of health effects.

EPA’s Director of the Office of Groundwater and Drinking Water, Peter Grevatt, told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee that the agency will decide if some of those chemicals should be declared “hazardous” under federal law.

Grevatt said if the agency takes this step, it could gives states more options for cleaning up contamination.

“This will give very important tools for states and local communities to address these PFAS challenges at local contaminated sites,” he said.

Millions Exposed

Millions of Americans have been exposed to the toxic fluorinated chemicals which have been linked to some cancers and thyroid problems at very low levels.

Emerging science from health studies indicates that EPA’s prior recommendations on exposure are not sufficiently protective of health.

In June, a draft report from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a part of the Centers for Disease Control, found these fluorinated chemicals can endanger human health at levels 7 to 10 times lower than the EPA’s recommended exposure limits.

State regulators who testified stressed the inconsistencies across federal agencies on what level of PFAS exposure is considered safe has led to increased public concern and driven some states to develop their own metrics.

Lisa Daniels, president of the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, said EPA needs to take the lead and develop Maximum Contaminant Levels, or legally enforceable limits on the amount of a substance allowed in public drinking water systems.

“States, water systems and the public need national leadership now to address this issue and for us the question is not whether to regulate, but when and how and make sure it’s done using sound science,” she said.

Regulatory Concerns

Some Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups say EPA’s deregulatory agenda under the Trump administration could undermine efforts to deal with PFAS contamination.

Erik Olson with the Natural Resources Defense Council told the committee he is concerned EPA will not take swift action.

“Unfortunately, the agency has known about this problem for more than a decade and there hasn’t even been a determination that a standard is necessary,” he said. “I didn’t even hear the agency commit to making a determination in the testimony earlier today.”

Previously Blocked Federal Study Raises Alarm About C8 Chemicals

The Trump administration today released a politically charged study on the health impacts of perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS chemicals, including the compound known as C8, which has been detected in some water systems in the Ohio Valley.

The draft report, released by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), finds these fluorinated chemicals, which are used in some nonstick products and flame retardants, can endanger human health at levels 7 to 10 times lower than the Environmental Protection Agency has previously said were safe.

Pressure on the Trump administration has been mounting for weeks to publicly disseminate the study. A growing number of lawmakers and advocacy groups have pressed the White House for action following news reports that the EPA had blocked its release.

Both West Virginia Senators, Joe Manchin (D) and Shelley Moore Capito (R), praised the release of ATSDR’s report.

“After repeatedly pushing the administration to make these findings public, I’m very glad to see it release this study today,” Capito said in a news release. “The information contained in the report will help determine potential threats our communities face as a result of certain water contamination issues, and that’s critical to ensuring the health of West Virginians.”

The report, or toxicological profile, draws upon the best available research. At 852 pages, it is aimed at giving public health officials a comprehensive picture of how fluorinated chemicals may affect human health as well as highlight the different ways people may be exposed to them.

The study finds people are exposed to fluorinated chemicals in a variety of ways including through contaminated soil and water, food packaging laced with the chemicals and some more directly by living near plants that manufactured C8.

It finds exposure to high levels of some fluorinated chemicals may affect fertility, increase cholesterol levels and increase the risk of thyroid disease.

Olga Naidenko, senior science advisor with the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization, said the analysis especially highlights how these chemicals are toxic to developing fetuses, pregnant women and young children.

“ATSDR’s profile really highlighted how very low, low doses can be harmful to developing fetuses, but also, for example, to the immune systems of young kids,” she said. “That’s something that EPA’s profile didn’t do.”

In 2016, the EPA issued a health advisory for some PFAS chemicals, including PFOA, or C8, and the related compound PFOS, often linked to flame retardant foam sprays.

The EPA says water contaminated with more than 70 parts-per-trillion is unsafe to drink. Naidenko said since the EPA conducted its own study of these chemicals, much more research has been published, and that research was included in this new report.

“It certainly represents a science and policy advance on this important issue,” she said.

Understanding how exposure to C8 and other fluorinated chemicals affects human health hits close to home in the Ohio Valley. Some municipalities in Ohio and West Virginia have been dealing with C8 contamination for decades.

Dupont’s Washington Works plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, dumped over 7,000 tons of C8 sludge in a nearby landfill where it leached out. The chemical polluted streams and exposure killed nearby livestock in the late 1990s. A lawsuit against DuPont on behalf of residents resulted in a settlement and established health studies which have expanded the knowledge of health risks.

In 2016, PFOA and PFOS contaminated firefighting foam used by the National Guard contaminated the city’s drinking water plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia.The city paid $4.5 million to install water treatment filters, and recentlysued the National Guard for damages to recoup those costs.

The new report also recommends Minimal Risk Levels (MRLs) for some PFAS chemicals. MRLs are an estimate of the amount of a chemical a person can eat, drink or breathe each day without it posing a health risk. Public health officials at both a federal and state level use these health-based values to determine if a community is at risk from chemical exposure.

ATSDR only suggested levels for oral ingestion of some PFAS chemicals. For PFOA and PFOS, the risk levels listed were far lower than what the EPA considers safe. The agency will take comments on the toxicological profile for 30 days.

EPA Pledges to Limit Public Exposure to Chemicals like C8

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said today the agency is prepared to take action to limit exposure of widely-used toxic chemicals used to make non-stick items.

PFAS is a category of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, C8, GenX, and many other chemicals with stain resistant, non-stick and waterproof properties. Several communities across the Ohio Valley have detected PFAS chemicals in drinking water and a few have significant contamination.

Speaking at a a two-day summit on PFAS contamination in Washington, D.C., Pruitt said EPA has a four-part plan to address water contamination from a suite of toxic fluorinated chemicals, known as PFAS.

EPA’s priority is to evaluate if a Maximum Contaminant Level, or MCL, is needed.

“It’s something that has been talked about for a number of years,” Pruitt told a crowd of about 200 people, which included representatives from 38 states and 20 federal agencies. “The process needs to begin.”

The MCL would set a legal limit on the amount of the substance allowed in public water systems. Currently, EPA has issued a health advisory for C8. It says water contaminated with more than 70 parts-per-trillion is unsafe the drink, but the advisory is non-enforceable.

Ohio EPA director Craig Butler, told summit participants in the absence of legally-enforceable federal guidance on PFAS contamination, states have taken different approaches. Many states are using EPA’s health advisory recommendations as the bar to take action, and a few are using more protective exposure levels than EPA’s.

“The resulting variation in PFOA/PFOS standards across the state creates a potential for confusion and complicates efforts to communicate health risk,” he said.

He encouraged the agency to discuss the merits of further regulation in open and transparent ways. He added this issue is important for many communities around the country including in Ohio and West Virginia. Some municipalities in those states have been dealing with C8 contamination for decades.

C8, a chemical similar to PFOA, was released from Dupont’s Washington Works plant in Parkersburg. DuPont dumped over 7,000 tons of C8 sludge in a nearby landfill where it leached out. The chemical polluted streams and exposure killed nearby livestock in the late 1990s.

At very low levels of exposure, PFAS chemicals have been linked to thyroid disease, immune disorders and kidney and testicular cancers.

Pruitt said the agency will also release groundwater cleanup recommendations this fall. EPA will consider declaring PFOS and PFOA a hazardous substance and will establish toxicity values for two other toxic fluorinated chemicals.

Cleanup recommendations may be helpful in cases such as 2016 chemical contamination in Martinsburg by the Air National Guard. PFOA and PFOS found in firefighting foam used by the National Guard allegedly contaminated the city’s drinking water plant. The city paid $4.5 million to install water treatment filters. This week, the City of Martinsburg sued the National Guard for damages to recoup those costs.

Pruitt told summit participants that state participation is crucial.

“Concerned citizens, local governments, states across the country are very focused upon acting,” he said. “We have people from community groups here as well that I know are very concerned about this. We want to hear from all of you as we take the next steps.”

Concerns surfaced about who was invited to the summit. Politico reported researchers who are currently and have in the past conducted studies of the health impacts associated with C8 exposure near the Washington Work’s plant were not invited. Furthermore, reporters from the Associated Press, CNN and E&E News were barred from attending the morning sessions of the summit. They were later allowed to enter.

EPA said it will hold a series of listening sessions across the country this summer.

This story was updated on 05/23/18 to clarify the chemical makeup of C8 and substances that the EPA is considering listing as hazardous.

DuPont Offers $670M Settlement For "Teflon" Chemical Contamination Of Water

The chemical giant DuPont made an offer Monday to pay more than half-a-billion dollars to settle water contamination lawsuits pending in federal court.

3,550 plaintiffs from the mid-Ohio Valley filed suit claiming contaminated drinking water led to diseases linked to chemical exposure. The chemical they were exposed to is known as C-8, or PFOA, and is used in Teflon and other products. More than a decade ago residents near the company’s Washington works plant in Wood County, West Virginia, learned that their water was contaminated with C-8, and had been for years.

Now DuPont and a spin-off company, Chemours, have agreed to pay a total of $670.7 million to settle the suits.

Rob Bilott, one of the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, is pleased with the settlement offer.

“This is a tremendous positive step toward resolving the litigation in a way that provides compensation for our injured clients without the need for additional, lengthy, and expensive trials,” Bilott said. “We look forward to working with DuPont to finalize this settlement and get these injured class members paid as quickly as possible.”

The companies also have agreed to pay up to an additional $50 million a year for the next five years for any additional claims that might arise.

“This agreement provides a sound resolution for area residents, Chemours, and the public,” said David Shelton, Senior Vice-President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary for Chemours. “It settles all indemnification obligations between Chemours and DuPont for all of the approximately 3,500 claims in the Ohio multi-district litigation and allows us to move forward with a renewed focus on our customers, product innovation and application development.”

Both companies continue to deny any wrongdoing.

DuPont phased out U.S. production of C-8 several years ago. Now it’s made in China. Although it’s still a widely used compound found in non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, and food wrappers here in the U.S.

The Chemours facility, formerly the Dupont company’s site, in Washington, West Virginia.

A Chemical Legacy

For more than half a century along the Ohio River, DuPont provided jobs for thousands of people. One chemical they produced is PFOA, commonly known as C-8. It was a remarkably useful compound, used in “Teflon” non-stick cookware, stain-resistant fabrics, and even in some food wrappers.

Over time, researchers have found that C-8 is also toxic. DuPont and other companies phased out U.S. production a few years ago. Now it’s made in China.

Explore your region’s water supply now. >>

The contamination in this region eventually lead to a class action lawsuit that resulted in a broad medical study of affected residents beginning in 2005. Over 30,000 community members were involved. The study linked C-8 to multiple health problems from cancer to reduced immune function. A series of additional health studies followed, and further proved that chemical compounds like C-8 are dangerous, even in small doses.

The medical testing of residents paved the way for lawsuits and the settlement agreement announced this week. But the studies also raised questions about what the chemical might do to people who are ingesting the chemical in very tiny amounts in drinking water.

Far-Reaching Concerns

Drinking water distribution center in Vienna, West Virginia.

Because the chemical can persist in water, communities along the Ohio River — and around the U.S. — are still grappling with the environmental fallout of contamination from C-8 and similar chemicals. The ReSource generated a map using water testing data available from the U.S. EPA. It shows 12 water systems in 10 counties in Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia where these chemicals were detected in the water.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a health advisory in 2016 for C-8 levels in drinking water, and many of the water systems that detected C-8 and related chemicals found them at levels lower than the EPA advisory. EPA officials say the C-8 advisory levels were calculated to protect fetuses during pregnancy and breastfed infants, and was based on “the best available peer-reviewed studies.”

However, a growing body of science indicates that the EPA advisory level is not sufficiently protective of human health, and many researchers recommend far more restrictive thresholds for exposure.

Dr. Philippe Grandjean of Harvard’s School of Public Health, an expert on health effects of perfluorinated chemicals like C-8, says the EPA’s advisory doesn’t go far enough. One of his latest studies looks at long term effects of these chemicals on the immune systems of exposed children.

Last year a coalition of scientists from around the world called for limits on C-8 production altogether. Health officials in New Jersey are suggesting that C-8 levels should be five times lower than what EPA advises (at about 14 parts per trillion). Grandjean’s work and other scientific studies have recommended an acceptable level of 1 part per trillion, which is what the European Union recommends for surface water.

Many of the water systems that detected PFOA or similar chemicals found levels that fall somewhere in a range below EPA’s health advisory but well above what scientists such as Grandjean have recommended. These communities include: Louisville and part of Pendleton County, in Kentucky; Gallia County, Ohio; and Parkersburg, West Virginia.