PFAS From Bad To Even Worse

The latest developments regarding the disastrous impact of PFAS Forever Chemicals discovery in our water supply means you can longer ignore this situation and the need for a solution grows in it's urgency.

The Greens will move for an urgent Upper House Inquiry this week after more revelations that cancer-linked forever chemicals have been detected in Sydney’s drinking water catchment - this time well above Australian drinking water guidelines.

New testing has found alarming levels of PFAS concentrations downstream of Medlow Dam in the Blue Mountains at 200 times higher than the guidelines - and upstream at more than 50 times the guidelines.

In December 2023, the World Health Organisation concluded that forever chemicals are carcinogenic. There is no safe level of exposure without a risk of adverse health effects.

“The Health Minister needs to come clean about exactly what’s in Sydney’s drinking water. As recently as Budget Estimates last week, Minister Park said that Sydney’s drinking water is safe, yet now we have independent testing showing PFAS concentrations well above the drinking water guidelines,” said Greens MP and water spokesperson Cate Faehrmann.

“I wrote to the Health and Water Ministers back in June seeking urgent independent testing which they refused to do. Then last week, I was informed that as a result of recent media investigations, Sydney Water and WaterNSW have added PFAS monitoring to their testing procedures.

To maintain your health it's now more important than ever to filter your water with an effective filtration system that will remove these toxins.

There are four broad systems for treating drinking water to remove such contaminants in the home.

1. Activated carbon

The first two treatment systems use an adsorption process (rather than absorption) to attract and trap PFAS and other contaminants from water. Absorption is when one substance is absorbed into another, but adsorption is when particles stick onto the surface of another substance. Adsorption using “activated carbon” is a widely used industrial process for drinking water treatment to remove a range of substances.

Adsorption binds PFAS or other contaminants through ionic bonds using either negatively charged or positively charged particles. It can be used to filter water as “granular activated carbon” or as “carbon block filters”. These are two broad types of water filters that use activated carbon.

2. Ion exchange resins

This second adsorption treatment uses different formulations of resin (or polymers) to chemically attract and remove targeted contaminants in water. The ion exchange filters use very small “microbeads” that have a large surface area to attract and remove contaminants.

3. Reverse-osmosis

This process uses electrical energy to build pressure to force water through semi-permeable filtration membranes usually made of layers of polyester material. The membrane has minute holes that only allow water molecules to pass through. This system creates a waste liquid often called “brine”. It contains the accumulated chemical and other matter that could not pass through the membrane.

Reverse-osmosis is a popular technology used on a very large scale to purify water. For example, desalination plants use this system to remove salt from sea water for drinking water supplies.

Such systems are also widely available at smaller scales for home water treatment. They are widely used across regional Australia where water supplies are often very saline or contain other impurities. They can be installed into home plumbing or smaller bench-top systems.

4. Distillation

A fourth treatment system is “distillation” of water. This process uses heat to boil water to produce steam. It then allows the steam to cool and condense, and then collects the resulting purified water.

It is not commonly used, although is one of the oldest water purification systems. It does not always reliably produce pure water as many chemicals have a lower boiling point than water. As a result, they can also be evaporated, condense and contaminate the processed water.

The process of boiling water will not remove PFAS chemicals on its own.

Important: There is such a thing as "too pure"

A word of warning: drinking demineralised water produced by reverse-osmosis or distillation can have a number of adverse consequences.

People need minerals, such as calcium and magnesium, provided by drinking water. While many essential minerals come from food and a balanced diet, a lack of these in water can upset a person’s electrolyte balance and can also trigger a range of health issues. If you do drink demineralised water, it would be wise to seek medical advice.

Also, demineralised water can be aggressive to plumbing, increasing the rate of corrosion of household pipes and appliances. This can dissolve metals from the plumbing into the drinking water

It's recommended to discuss your options with a credible filtration distributor to make sure you are buying the system you need.