Chief Health Officer for RVO Health Dr. Jenny Yu is back to talk with Stacy about PFAS or “forever chemicals” in our water and the bold new limits the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set, some of the most health protective limits in the world. Dr. Yu and Stacy break down what the regulation is, why it matters, and how it affects all of us.
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Key Takeaways
Introductions
- Dr. Jenny Yu is an MD FACS and the Chief Health Officer for RVO Health, the parent company to Healthline, Healthgrades, and Optum Perks. She leads the Medical Affairs team and supports the overall organization in strategy, growth, medical integrity, and external speaking opportunities.
- Prior to joining Healthline in 2020, she was a practicing academic clinician with 15+ years of experience in research and operation.
- Additionally, she is a co-founder of the non-profit, Project Theia, with focus on education, care, and innovation in facial reconstructive surgeries for global communities.
PFAS in Your Water
We need to be shifting towards understanding how we prevent disease, how we improve our health, and there are certain things that we can control and there are certain things we can’t; so, having the EPA and other organizations really thinking about this… when you add the collective forces, then it starts the snowball effect of maybe we’re inching towards the right direction here. – Dr. Jenny Yu
- Stacy has done a deep dive before on What are PFAS and how they affect our health in Episode 464 of The Whole View.
- While figuring this all can be overwhelming, the best thing we can do is just take a step back and be intentional in our choices and decisions. Dr. Yu notes that’s having mindfulness and balance is important, as living in an anxious state can also be a detriment to your health.
- Dr. Yu believes we should be educated to understand how to read the labels, ingredients, and the certifications, because those things matter, and those things are in place to really safeguard for the consumers as well.
- Read about all of this and more in Stacy’s article about the EPA’s new PFAS in water regulation:
National Science Foundation
There are many non-profits that have been doing a lot of work in trying to protect us. Among many things, the National Science Foundation (NSF) creates our standards in residential water treatment systems. Their mission is to align public health with corporate social responsibility. The NSF is the authority for many health standards, testing, certification, water, health products, and the environment. Essentially, they’re a non-profit that’s looking out for you. NSF experts developed voluntary standards and protocols to establish minimum safety and performance requirements for drinking water, food and other consumer products. They also do in-house testing and certification. However, once these standards are created by NSF, a select group of five organizations are accredited by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) and allowed to independently test and certify products to NSF standards. ANSI oversees standards and conformity assessment activities in the United States. [source]
What are the planned changes from the new EPA ruling?
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized unprecedented new limits to tackle drinking water contamination from six of the notorious “forever chemicals” known as PFAS. This includes PFOA, PFOS, GenX, PFBS, PFNA and PFHxS. While this is great news, it means that we have been drinking contaminated water and will continue to do so until remediation is made at a Federal level. Until then, at-home water purification that removes PFAS is our best option.
What are some of the new EPA PFAS limits?
EPA’s new limits, known as maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) are the highest level of contaminant allowed in drinking water. The new MCL requires water treatment plants to lower the amount of these chemicals in current water systems, based on human health and environmental safety.
The six specified PFAS are part of a larger family of toxic fluorinated chemicals that build up don’t break down in the body or environment. Even at low levels, they have been linked to cancer, reproductive harm, immune system damage and other serious health problems. [source]
According to the EPA, The final rule will reduce PFAS exposure for approximately 100 million people, prevent thousands of deaths, and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses.” [source] In the first-ever national drinking water standard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), EPA expressed the following key messages:
- PFAS exposure over a long period of time can cause cancer and other illnesses that decrease quality of life or result in death.
- PFAS exposure during critical life stages such as pregnancy or early childhood can also result in adverse health impacts.
- EPA is issuing this rule after reviewing extensive research and science on how PFAS affects public health, while engaging with the water sector and with state regulators to ensure effective implementation.
- PFAS pollution can have disproportionate impacts on small, disadvantaged, and rural communities already facing environmental contamination.
- The quantifiable health benefits of this rule are estimated to be $1.5 billion annually (based on quantified by considering the costs of illness such as lost wages, medical bills, and the value of every life lost).
- EPA estimates that between about 6% and 10% of the 66,000 public drinking water systems subject to this rule may have to take action to reduce PFAS to meet these new standards. [source]
What are the regulatory levels?
The regulatory levels for PFOA and PFOS a non-enforceable health-based goal of zero. This is called a Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG). This reflects the latest science showing that there is no level of exposure to these two PFAS without risk of health impacts. EPA is setting enforceable MCLs at 4.0 parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS, individually [source].
Dr. Yu believes this kind of strong statement and the rest of the ruling that the EPA put out is really trying to modernize the processes for our water sources depending on where you live to potential health impacts. It really sets the tone and standards for the modernization of these things and put funding and resources in the appropriate places.
Studies, References, and Products
- The Whole View with Stacy Toth, Bonus Ep: Plastic Nano & Micro Particles in Water w/ Healthline’s Dr. Jenny Yu
- Berkey Water Filters vs. The EPA, Realeverything.com
- The Whole View, Ep 406: Got Water?
- The Whole View, Ep 464: Forever Chemicals, What are PFAS?
- EPA sets bold new limits on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water, EWG.org
- Final PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation, EPA.gov
- Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances, EPA.gov
- Rapid single-particle chemical imaging of nanoplastics by SRS microscopy, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
- Bottled Water Is Full of Plastic Particles. Can They Harm Your Health?, NY Times
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