PFAS get a lot of attention, but there are other compounds in our drinking water that are more dangerous — and much more common.
Health fads come and go, but drinking more water (and less beer and soda) is one of the few things that’s unequivocally good for the human body. It should be as easy as putting a glass under the tap, but what kinds of potentially harmful chemicals lurk there? News that 3M is paying more than $10 billion to clean “forever chemicals” from municipal drinking water isn’t helping our confidence.
Susan Richardson, a former EPA chemist now at the University of South Carolina, has been working to establish a big-picture view — using an instrument that can measure the relative abundance of different kinds of chemical contaminants. She’s been following the forever chemicals (polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS) for 30 years, but she’s come to realize that for most of us, these likely pose a minor threat compared to something else — the chemicals that form spontaneously as a byproduct of water disinfection.
In most areas, the concentration of these disinfection byproducts (DBPs) is 1,000 times greater than the forever chemicals. And the toxicity of the DBPs is worse.
Boyett’s family has three solutions to this serious water problem:
11870 Chromium Brochure (azh2o.com)
9679 Whole House Mercury (azh2o.com)
Richardson says she thinks disinfection byproducts are getting less attention from the public, and from the EPA, because “forever chemicals” is such an attention-grabbing name. She suggested we call DBPs “everyday chemicals” but that label doesn’t quite have the same ominous sound. Maybe “Frankenstein chemicals” would grab more attention — and underline that these compounds are made up of a scary hodgepodge of different pieces.
She worries that new EPA regulations on PFAS could be focusing limited resources on PFAS when other contaminants are being ignored.
Risk communication consultant Peter Sandman has said that people’s experience of risk is the sum of hazard (the probability of being killed or harmed) and an outrage factor. Forever chemicals created by a huge company can raise outrage — but it’s hard to get people enraged about compounds that aren’t made by any particular company, but form spontaneously following a process that’s considered a triumph of public health.
Many of us have gotten used to that chlorine smell from our taps. But we don’t have to accept chemicals in our water to ensure it’s free of disease-causing parasites, bacteria and algae. There are many ways to disinfect water — chlorinating, ozonating, chlorine dioxide, UV — and some are more prone to creating dangerous byproducts.
Filtration using activated carbon can catch disinfection byproducts and forever chemicals is very effective. Here is another option for whole-house carbon filtration solution (also removes the fluoride in your water):
Fluoride Filter + Granular Activated Filter – Boyett’s Family Water Treatment (azh2o.com)
Providing clean water will become more challenging with a changing climate and increasingly prolonged droughts. In El Paso, Texas, the municipal water plant is gearing up to reuse wastewater — something that might become more necessary there and elsewhere. In California, too, there are systems where wastewater is injected underground and then disinfected for “indirect” reuse.
It’s been hard, until recently, to get a big-picture comparison of different kinds of chemical contaminants because there are hundreds of compounds that fall into the category of DBPs and PFAS.
The specific disinfection byproducts in your community depend not just on how municipal water is disinfected, but on how much natural organic matter and salt is in the source water. Salts can come from proximity to the ocean or even to an ancient ocean whose residual salts leach into the groundwater. Fracking often dislodges natural iodide salt, which tends to form the most toxic disinfection byproducts.
So what ends up in your water includes a complicated brew of compounds formed in reactions between natural organic matter, salts, industrial waste and other pollutants, and the chemicals added for disinfection.
Our salt content in the Phoenix metro are and East Valley is so high because 2/3 of our water comes down the salt river (it is called the salt river because it runs through salt beds).
The above photo represents the residual salt when the water dried along our Salt Riverbed.
We recently performed some fiddle songs along the salt river.
At Saguaro ranch lodge
Right now, there are about 700 compounds known to be formed from disinfection, but only 11 are regulated. And those aren’t the most dangerous, said Richardson.
There are implications here for PFAS, too. Some studies have suggested there are thousands of PFAS, but Richardson says there aren’t thousands of industrial PFAS products. Some could be fragmenting or combining with other chemicals, forming new unnatural, long-lived compounds.
Both PFAS and DBPs are considered halogenated organic chemicals because they include atoms of the halogens — fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine. The DBPs are the primary source of any such compounds with chlorine, bromine and iodine, and the instrument can measure the full burden of those as well.
It also matters which of these compounds actually cause harm to the human body. Toxicology studies using animals or other model systems have shown that both PFAS and DBPs can potentially cause cancer and other health problems. But it takes epidemiology to connect exposures in the real world to clusters of cancer or other diseases. There is compelling epidemiology tying PFAS to high cholesterol, and some evidence for decreased male fertility. For DBPs, epidemiological studies have revealed connections to bladder and colon cancer.
These studies can’t connect any individual cancer case to chemical pollution — but they suggest some fraction of people with cancer would not have gotten sick if not for DBPs in water. That’s unacceptable. We should all be able to drink from the tap and know we’re improving our health — not putting it in jeopardy.
Here is a couple other options for good drinking water:
7487 Clarify Reverse Osmosis (azh2o.com)
New RO Development – Boyett’s Family Water Treatment (azh2o.com)
Source:
I give all the credit to this source
PFAS Are Bad, But Other Water-Polluting Chemicals Are Even Worse – Bloomberg
Our stray cat Bossy is an important character in our lives every day.
One of Boyett’s family water treatment secret ingredients is our close human contact approach and this:
“To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.”
As we watch the company’s whose customers are happiest – these people love people. We love people.
Sources:
The dutch brothers creed
We always want to inform you of where we work and what we do there
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Our company has been going strong since 1966.
It is because of the dedication of my founder parents to get us started and the fine work of many great customer service people and fine water treatment technicians (and the loyalty and trust of our clients) that we were able to take this recent picture. We are very grateful and humbled for our work with you.
I am fortunate to meet with as many as 20 of you each week (after 5 PM and on Saturdays). Thank you for allowing us to stop by your home because we love people, and we love our work.
Here is a story about our company history:
Respectfully, Hayden Boyett
Cel ‘text is best’ 602.291.4157