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– Unfortunately, it confirms something that we suspected for a long time, that our entire environment is contaminated by PFAS. What we see in our drinking water is just the tip of an iceberg, says the secretary general of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, Karin Lexén.
European Food Safety Authority, EFSA, in September it drastically lowered the health-based limits for the amount of PFAS chemicals we should ingest. Fundamentally, EFSA considers that PFAS impairs the ability to absorb vaccines.
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has verified that drinking water from a number of Swedish waterworks complies with the new EFSA limit value. At 16 out of 42 surveyed sites, the water has higher PFAS levels than the new EFSA limit value, including Halmstad, Gävle and Uppsala. But also Greater Stockholm and western Skåne with Malmö and Lund.
Nine other locations in Sweden they have such high levels that it is necessary to remediate one or more sources of drinking water. In total, the drinking water of around two million Swedes is affected according to this survey.
The risks do not mean that we should stop drinking water, says Karin Lexén. However, you want to see more water purification:
– These limits are established based on the idea that you should be able to have an intake throughout your life. Therefore, it is not dangerous to drink the water, but the important thing is that we purify the water so as not to expose ourselves to these levels for a long period of time, says Karin Lexén.
According to EFSA, the limit so that we can drink water throughout life without risk to health is a maximum of 3.8 nanograms of PFAS per liter, so we can also cope with the PFAS that we receive in other ways, Like dust in the air we breathe
Until now, the National Food Administration has recommended that drinking water with more than 90 nanograms per liter be purified using, for example, carbon filters. The National Food Administration wants to wait to change the limit values until the new EU drinking water directive arrives, which may take some time.
The minister responsible for the government for drinking water problems, Jennie Nilsson, wants to wait for the EU drinking water directive, although it may take a couple of years:
– I guess it will be very sensitive to scientific data, both at EU level and at national level then.
– This is an important issue for me as a responsible minister in Sweden, but also for all ministers. It is a fundamental issue that we have good and safe drinking water, concludes Jennie Nilsson.
