On March 14, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to limit perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water, heightening concerns about these “forever chemicals” in nearby Prince William County, Va., where current levels of PFAS exceed the newly proposed limit. The EPA also announced April 13 that it will issue a federal Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to ask for public input on the future of PFAS regulation.

PFAS are man-made chemicals that linger in the environment for decades — hence the label “forever chemicals” — and have many links to chronic health issues. In 2021, a test by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) showed that Northern Virginia — particularly Prince William County — is a hotspot for PFAS.

PFAS are present in countless everyday products, from food wrappers to makeup, and are especially common in heat-resistant or waterproof items. When these products reach landfills, rainwater trickles through the waste pile, and spreads PFAS from the trash to the groundwater. 

Laura Anderko, co-director of Villanova University’s Mid-Atlantic Center for Children’s Health and the Environment and a former professor at Georgetown University’s School of Nursing & Health Studies, says it is challenging to prevent exposure to PFAS because of their widespread commercial use. 

“It tends to be overwhelming when you first hear about what it can do or the kinds of places where it can be found,” Anderko said in an interview with The Hoya. 

Over 9,000 types of PFAS exist in industrial and consumer products, but existing research only focuses on a small handful, according to Anderko. She said that companies continue to develop new kinds of PFAS, despite links to cancer, heart attacks and birth complications.

“Our chemical policy is innocent until proven guilty, meaning that industries can create these chemicals without testing for human health effects,” Anderko said. 

Mindi Messmer (GRD ’19), an environmental and public health scientist, said that chemical companies justify using new kinds of PFAS by saying that health studies are time-consuming, expensive and not yet existent for every type of PFAS. Messmer said that the EPA’s system of regulating individual varieties of PFAS cannot keep up with the tactics of chemical manufacturers. She has been pushing the EPA to regulate these chemicals as a group instead.

“That’s what we want for PFAS, to stop this game of us playing whack-a-mole with these chemicals while companies make billions off of us as we get sick,” Messmer told The Hoya.

In June 2022, the EPA set a non-enforceable “lifetime health advisory” for two common PFAS, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOS), limiting PFOA to 0.004 parts per trillion (ppt) and PFOS to 0.02 ppt in drinking water. However, in March 2023, the EPA proposed an enforceable limit of 4 ppt for PFOS and PFOA, along with limits for four other PFAS. EWG reported in 2021 that the water in Prince William County contained 6.3 PFOA ppt and 4.9 PFOS ppt.

Messmer expressed support for the EPA’s new limits, but also voiced concerns that the new limits send a mixed message to people — the lifetime health advisory, which is near zero ppt, indicates that there is no safe level of exposure to PFAS, but the proposed limits are significantly higher. 

“It’s a good step in the right direction, but for people like us – those who want to protect people – it still isn’t where we need it to be. I think that any detection of any of these chemicals should be outlawed, and the regulations should reflect that,” Messmer said.

The EPA’s regulations may be new, but research on the toxicity of PFAS dates back to the 1980s. PFAS have existed in products since the 1940s, so communities like Prince William County have likely been exposed to these chemicals for decades. 

“This is not a brand-new thing,” Anderko said. “PFAS stay in our bodies for over 30 years, depending on the chemical. There’s no pill you can take to make it go away, and it’s hard for your body to eliminate it.” 

Though there is no way to retroactively treat PFAS exposure, Anderko said that the new EPA limit is a long-overdue step towards preventing new exposures. If enacted, it would force public water systems, including that of Prince William County, to install water treatment technologies like reverse osmosis or activated carbon filters, which are highly effective at removing PFAS. 

However, Anderko stressed that the EPA must take a bidirectional approach, both targeting upstream sources of PFAS and purifying existing PFAS from the water supply. 

“I believe we need to stop it with stricter regulations, but we’re all stuck with it already,” Anderko said. “We have to deal with two things: shut off the spigot and fix what we’re left with.”