An expert in the risk of chemicals has issued a scathing assessment of the guidelines in place for ‘s drinking water quality.
Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, a senior policy adviser for the International Pollutants Elimination Network, said is falling behind other countries in drinking water safety.
The amount of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) allowed in drinking water are the subject of new limits in the US, where the laws are far more restrictive than ‘s.
‘ cannot continue to use drinking water guidelines that are an international embarrassment,’ Dr Lloyd-Smith told ABC’s Radio National.
PFAS are also known as ‘forever chemicals’, and in 2023 the World Health Organization declared that PFOA, which is one of the roughly 14,000 known variants of PFAS, is a class one human carcinogen.
‘n standards … are out of date, out of touch and totally are not usable for protecting human health,’ Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
‘We really do need to move on these chemicals quickly. And particularly when it’s in drinking water, something that everybody has to consume. It just is totally unacceptable.’
In , PFAS chemicals have been used widely in firefighting foam in Defence Force bases due to their resistance to heat and flames.
The chemicals, which were developed in the 1940s and 1950s, are also known for their resistance to water and stains and are used in products such as rain coats and non-stick frying pans.
Nick Chartres, of the University of Sydney’s medicine and health faculty, said they are ‘the most mobile, persistent and toxic chemicals in the world’.
‘We know that they can get into the Arctic ice caps, they can get into the ice in Antarctica, they get into the deep-sea floor soil sediment. They basically travel everywhere,’ Dr Chartres said.
PFAS’ in drinking water has led to the new regulations in the US.
Most ns already probably have very low levels of PFAS in their bodies from using items such as sunscreen and cosmetics.
But prolonged exposure, which could happen through drinking contaminated water over a long period, can lead to immune and heart problems, and can also affect fetal and infant growth.
Dr Chartres said the US Environmental Protection Agency found ‘based on the best available evidence that we have … there is actually no safe level (of exposure to PFAS)’.
‘So if you get exposed across a lifetime, at any level, your risk of these diseases starts going up incrementally based on the level of exposure.’
He said that the US law change should be a wake-up call for .
‘We now have to look to that and say, how do our standards (compare)? … And if there’s any type of divergence with the n (laws), why is there a divergence?’
In the US, the maximum level allowed for PFOA and another variant, PFOS, in drinking water is four parts per trillion.
But in , PFOS and PFHxS – yet another PFAS variant – are allowed up to a level of 70 parts per trillion.
‘And for PFOA, which is so much more toxic, we’ve set a level of 560 (parts per trillion),’ Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
She cautioned against buying bottled water to use instead of tap water, though.
‘We’ve found PFAS in bottled water too, so that’s not the solution,’ she said.
Filtration systems can lower PFAS levels in drinking water, but they are expensive and unaffordable for many people.
Dr Lloyd-Smith said people should try to reduce their exposure to PFAS beyond its presence in drinking water.
She advised people to check labels and read the ingredients in the make-up products they use.
People should also research how their clothes, food and food packaging are made, and what chemicals they could contain.
‘ must … assess (PFAS) as a class and aim to restrict and eliminate all uses of PFAS,’ Dr Lloyd-Smith said.