Many Believe Rainwater Is Safe to Drink but a New Study Has Found a 'Deadly' Chemical Inside It
Many of us would recall a childhood moment when we rejoice in the splattering rain, sticking our tongues out, trying to taste the pure water condensing down from a rain cloud. But now, this can lead us to health hazards, because a 2022 study published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology has revealed that drinking rainwater can be blatantly deadly. A team of scientists from Stockholm University documented in this study that rainwater is likely contaminated by Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are basically chemicals leached from the plastics.
Millions of tons of this plastic are dumped into landfills each day. Since it takes thousands of years for these plastics to decompose, they just sit there spewing toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. Eventually, eddies of air currents swish above this plastic waste while lifting these chemicals into the atmosphere and spilling them into water bodies like oceans, rivers, and lakes. By the time this water seeps into a treatment plant, it is already contaminated with a host of plastic particles. Meanwhile, all those particles that were still hanging in the atmosphere unleash their poison by clinging to the droplets of rainwater.
“Earth is officially past its safe zone for plastic contamination. The PFAS boundary has been exceeded,” researchers note in the study. Also known as “forever chemicals,” these PFAS fragments are literally omnipresent. “Based on the latest U.S. guidelines for PFOA in drinking water, rainwater everywhere would be judged unsafe to drink. Although in the industrial world we don’t often drink rainwater, many people around the world expect it to be safe to drink, and it supplies many of our drinking water sources,” lead author Ian Cousins, a professor at Stockholm University, said in a press release.
According to the study, there are thousands of kinds of PFAS lingering around in the atmosphere. In this study, the team examined four common forms of these, including PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, and PFNA. They combed the remotest regions of the planet, such as Antarctica and the Tibetan plateau, to collect samples of rainwater from soils and surface water streams. To their shocking realization, the PFAS level of this water was 14 times higher than the advised level, despite that the water was seemingly secluded and untouched.
The team found that the levels of at least two forms of PFAS, including PFOA and PFOS, greatly exceeded the safe levels of drinking water as recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The maximum safe level of PFAS, according to the EPA, ranges from 0.004 parts per trillion (ppt) for PFOA to 2,000 ppt for PFBS. When the safe level is exceeded in a human body, the plastics wreak havoc on their system. They assault the immune system so it turns against the body. In pregnant women and newborns, they impair cell growth and disrupt hormones. In some cases, ingesting them can even cause cancer.
Despite the grave danger this plastic substance poses to humans, it is profoundly challenging to get these out of the planet now. We can think that it’s never too late, but when it comes to plastic, it’s indeed too late to stop its proliferation. And even if the authorities plan to do something about it, it would be next to impossible without “huge cleanup costs in drinking water treatment plants, given that most drinking water sources on the planet will have PFAS levels above the advisory levels,” according to the study.