Drinking water is contaminated Pfas The chemicals likely increase the risk of infant mortality and other harms to newborns, a new peer-reviewed study of 11,000 births in New Hampshire has found.
A first-of-its-kind study from the University of Arizona found that diverting well drinking water from a Pfas-contaminated site was associated with a 191% increase in infant mortality, a 20% increase in preterm births, and a 43% increase in low birth weight babies.
It was also associated with an increase in the incidence of extremely preterm birth and extremely low birth weight births by 168% and 180% respectively.
The results took the authors by surprise, said Derek Lemoine, a co-author of the study and an economics professor at the University of Arizona who focuses on environmental policymaking and climate risk pricing.
“I don't know that we expected to find such a large and such a noticeable effect, especially given that there aren't that many infant deaths and there aren't that many cases of extremely low birth weight or preterm births,” Lemoine said. “But it was in the data.”
The study also weighed the societal harms of drinking contaminated water against the initial cleanup costs and found that it was much cheaper to address Pfas water contamination.
Extrapolating the results to the entire U.S. population, the authors estimate the annual negative economic impact to be nearly $8 billion from increased health care costs and decreased productivity alone. The cost of complying with current regulations to remove Pfas from drinking water is estimated to be approximately $3.8 billion.
“We're trying to price that out, and that's important because when you want to clean and regulate Pfas, there's a real cost to it,” Lemoine said.
Pfas are a class of at least 16,000 compounds that are often used to protect products from water, stains and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not break down naturally or accumulate in the environment, and they are linked to serious health problems such as cancer, kidney disease, liver problems, immune disorders and birth defects.
PFAs are widely used in the economy, and industrial facilities that use them in large quantities often pollute groundwater. Military bases and airports are among the main sources of Pfas pollution as these chemicals are used in firefighting foams. Federal government rated that about 95 million people nationwide drink contaminated water from public or private wells.
Previous research has raised concerns about the influence Exposure to Pfas for fetuses and newborns.
These include toxicology studies in which researchers study the effects of chemicals on laboratory animals, but that leaves some doubt about whether humans experience the same harm, Lemoine said.
Other studies are correlational and look at Pfas levels in cord blood or newborns depending on the level of disease. Lemoine said these results are not always conclusive, in part because many variables can contribute to reproductive harm.
The new naturalistic study is unique because it gets closer to “isolating the effect of Pfas itself, rather than anything around it,” Lemoine said.
The researchers achieved this by identifying 41 New Hampshire sites contaminated with Pfoa and Pfos, two common Pfas compounds, then using topography data to determine the direction of groundwater flow. The authors then examined reproductive outcomes among downstream residents.
The researchers chose New Hampshire because it was the only state where data on Pfas and reproductive function were available, Lemoine said. The locations of the wells are confidential, so the mothers did not know whether their water source was downhill from the Pfas-contaminated site. The authors noted that this created a randomization that allows causal inferences to be made.
The study's methodology is rigorous and unique and highlights “that Pfas is no joke and is toxic at very low concentrations,” said Sidney Evans, senior scientific analyst at the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. The group is studying the impact of Pfas and advocating for stronger regulation.
The study is effective in part because the mothers did not know whether they had been exposed, leading to randomization, Evans said, but she noted the state has the information. Evans said the findings raise questions about whether the state should conduct a similar analysis and warn mothers at risk.
Lemoine said the study has some limitations, including that the authors don't know the mothers' exact exposure levels to Pfas and that the study doesn't account for other contaminants that may be in the water. But he added that the results still provide a clear picture of the chemicals' exposure.
Granular activated carbon or reverse osmosis systems can be used by water treatment plants and home consumers to remove many types of Pfas, and these systems also remove other contaminants.
The Biden administration last year imposed drinking water restrictions on six types of Pfa and gave water utilities several years to install the systems.
The Trump administration is moving to lift restrictions on some connections. This will likely cost society more in the long run. Utility customers pay the cost of removing Pfas, but the public “also pays the cost of drinking contaminated water, which is greater,” Lemoine said.
