The EPA recently announced new drinking water health advisories for PFAS chemicals under the Safe Drinking Water Act. The advisories for PFOS and PFOA set in 2016 were lowered from 70 ppt to .02 ppt (PFOS) and 0.004 ppt (PFOA)—an over 99.9% reduction. The EPA also added new interim health advisories for two other types of PFAS: 10 ppt for GenX and 2,000 ppt for PFBS.
The EPA stated: “The updated advisory levels, which are based on new science and consider lifetime exposure, indicate that some negative health effects may occur with concentrations of PFOA or PFOS in water that are near zero and below EPA’s ability to detect at this time.”
The EPA’s health advisories are “not to be construed as legally enforceable federal standards” but rather “describe information about health effects, analytical methodologies, and treatment technologies.”
