Higher standards proposed in Canada
Since 2019, Health Canada has set targets governing the concentration of around ten perfluorinated substances in drinking water. The lowest targets are 200 nanograms per liter (ng/L). New stricter standards, which are the subject of public consultation until April, target around thirty perfluorinated substances. The sum of their concentration should not exceed 30 ng/L, which is much less.
Even more severe in the United States
In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) set in mid-March at 4 ng/L the limit for two perfluorides in drinking water.
PHOTO MORGANE CHOCQUER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Sébastien Sauvé, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Montreal
There is an EPA standard for what is desirable, which is zero. And there is a standard that takes into account the cost of monitoring and treatment, which is 4 ng/L. It’s lower than in Canada [où la limite proposée est de 30 ng/L]but we include many more molecules.
Sébastien Sauvé, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Montreal
Four other perfluorines are also targeted by the EPA, according to a complicated calculation with thresholds ranging from 9 to 2000 ng / L, according to Mr. Sauvé. EPA standards must be enforced by all states, which may even adopt more stringent standards.
PHOTO FROM THE PFAS PROJECT WEBSITE
Perfluorinated froth floated down Michigan’s Huron River in 2018 from automotive activity upstream.
Some states – for example, Michigan since 2020 – already monitor perfluorides in drinking water. “I think that in Canada, we should go towards lower limits, like in the United States”, estimates Scott Hopkins, chemist at the University of Waterloo, specialist in the measurement of perfluorides in drinking water and sewers. .
PHOTO FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO WEBSITE
Scott Hopkins in front of a supercomputer he uses to model his detection tools
By taking into account many more perfluorinated substances, concretely, the Canadian approach is more severe for the moment. But I expect states in the US to lower their limits below those of the EPA.
Scott Hopkins, chemist at the University of Waterloo
Too much perfluorinated in the water of eight cities in Quebec
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Longueuil’s drinking water contains too many perfluorides if the standard of 30 ng/L is applied.
Sébastien Sauvé applied the new EPA standards to his analysis of perfluorides in drinking water in Quebec, published in mid-February in the journal Water Research. The number of municipalities exceeding the thresholds is five according to the proposed Canadian standard of 30 ng/L, but rises to eight when the EPA standard is applied. Thus, the American standard would tip Sainte-Pétronille, Longueuil and Waterloo into the camp of cities where drinking water contains too many perfluorinated substances, in which Val-d’Or, Saint-Donat, Sainte-Adèle, L’ Epiphany and Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton according to the standard envisaged in Canada. It should be noted, however, that these measurements fluctuate: at L’Épiphanie, a subsequent measurement reported levels below the standard of 30 ng/L.
“The City is following this file closely through its participation in the Industrial Drinking Water Chair at Polytechnique Montréal, in collaboration with other municipal partners,” said Louis-Pascal Cyr, spokesperson for the City of Longueuil.
Voluntary Federal Standard
With the proposed new standards, Canada “is, in my opinion, more stringent than the American approach, which only covers a few perfluorinated compounds,” says Sébastien Sauvé.
The Canadian federal standard is not mandatory, but some provinces, notably Ontario and British Columbia, are more advanced in this area than Quebec – which does not limit the presence of perfluorides in drinking water.
It is surprising that, with the recommendations of experts from Health Canada, the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the European Union, Quebec contradicts them and maintains that for the moment, we there is no need to regulate perfluorides in drinking water in Quebec.
Sébastien Sauvé, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Montreal
Quebec is following the file
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The national director of public health, Luc Boileau
The National Directorate of Public Health of Quebec is following the file, according to the public relations specialist Robert Maranda of the Ministry of Health and Social Services, who underlines the “uncertainties concerning the probability and the importance of the effects on health” of perfluorides. At the end of February, the national director of public health, Luc Boileau, declared to Radio-Canada that the water of the Quebec distribution networks was “very drinkable”, despite the presence of perfluorides.
Almost eternal pollutants
Discovered in the 1940s, perfluorines are very resistant, which is positive for the industry, but it allows them to accumulate in the environment and living organisms without being degraded. They are notably used in stain repellents, anti-adhesives and high performance fire-fighting foams. An increased risk of certain cancers has been observed in populations living near highly contaminated sites, and more recently, immune problems at more widespread rates, driving the new norms.
The half-life (a technical measure of the elimination of half of a quantity of a product) of perfluorides sometimes approaches ten years. “We call them eternal pollutants, but that’s a bit of an overstatement, we’re not talking about hundreds or thousands of years,” says Mr. Sauvé. Good news: the concentrations in the American population of certain perfluorinated substances banned in 2004 by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, which notably covers PCBs, have started to drop, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of the American government. . Theoretically, the regulations do not only include perfluorines, but also polyfluorines. The English acronym PFAS is also used to designate them, or in French “substances alkylées perfluorées ou polyfluorées”.
Analyze wastewater
The few private laboratories capable of analyzing the quantity of perfluorides in drinking water in Quebec probably have a detection limit of 4 ng/L, according to Mr. Sauvé. “With a little effort, they should be able to get down to 1 ng/L. That should be enough to meet the new Canadian standard. Mr. Sauvé’s laboratory has a detection limit of 0.05 to 0.1 ng/L, depending on the molecule, and covers 75 kinds of perfluorides.
At the University of Waterloo, Mr. Hopkins is working on a new technology for detecting perfluorides in wastewater. “Current techniques work with relatively clean waters,” says Hopkins. With sewage, it is more difficult. If we want to identify the sources of perfluorides to eliminate the problem at the source, we will need new technologies. »
What are perfluorids?
Molecules used since the 1950s as stain and anti-adhesive agents, notably in Teflon, as well as in military and airport fire-fighting foams, perfluorines do not degrade and accumulate in the environment and the body. They have carcinogenic potential and interfere with the immune system. Three perfluorinated compounds are banned by the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, signed by 152 countries in 2001 and coming into force three years later. This international agreement concerns 30 substances that persist for a long time in the environment and the human body.
Learn more
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- 771 million US
- Cost of imposing new US standards on perfluorides in drinking water
Source: EPA