Per- and Polyfluorinated chemicals (PFAS) are a complex family of more than 3,000 manmade chemicals, including perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorooctanioic acid (PFOA), and perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS) and are prevalent in the environment and consumer products. Although PFOS, PFOA and PFHxS are no longer manufactured in the United States, they are used in a variety of industries worldwide. PFAS are resistant to heat, water and oil, and have been used for decades in hundreds of industrial and consumer product applications.
These chemicals can be found in thousands of products we use daily, such as water-resistant clothing, carpet, food wrappers, non-stick cookware, cleaning products and more. Most people around the world have measurable amounts of PFAS in their own blood and are typically exposed by eating or drinking contaminated food or liquids (including water), breathing or touching products treated with PFAS, such as carpets or clothing. Over time, these chemicals have entered our water supplies through manufacturing, landfills and wastewater runoff. Hundreds of water agencies throughout California and thousands throughout the U.S. are challenged with the presence of PFAS in drinking water supplies – even at very low levels.
For more on what Suburban is doing to address PFAS, view our Fact Sheet here
Did you know?
- Suburban often goes beyond what is required to monitor for constituents that have known health risks.
- We use only independent, state-certified water quality laboratories for testing.
- We test for more than 100 chemical and pollutants and take approximately 9,000 tests each year.
- An analysis of these water test results can be found in Suburban’s Annual Water Quality Report.
For more information, please visit:
United States Environmental Protection Agency: epa.gov/PFAS
State Water Resource Control Board | Division of Drinking Water: waterboards.ca.gov/pfas/
United States Food and Drug Administration: fda.gov/food/chemicals/and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas
