Mara Hoplamazian

And then once you do look that up, how do you make sense of the reports that you find?

I think a good first step is to sort of compare your results to the federal regulations so that, you know, four parts per trillion for PFOA and PFOS and then any state regulations you might have.

I looked into this in Concord, New Hampshire, where I live.

My apartment is on public water.

So I checked to see if my water utility had tested the water.

And they did test in 2023 and they published those results online.

One of the water sources that mixes into my water tested slightly above the federal level, but the other sources had levels lower than the federal limit, and everything was below New Hampshire's state limits.

So I felt like that was enough for me to feel my water was pretty safe.

But then again, like you said, the EPA has said that no level of PFAS is safe to be drinking.

Yeah, and in part, the reason for the difference between that zero parts per trillion for the health guideline and the four parts per trillion for the enforceable guideline is because we can't really test down that low.

I mean, these are tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny amounts of these chemicals.

And, you know, it's a chemical that's not good for us even in tiny, tiny, tiny amounts.

But the EPA basically says we can't ask people to test and treat water lower than four parts per trillion.

It wouldn't be feasible with the technology we have and the cost it would require.

We'll have more Life Kit after the break.

When it comes to drinking water, how can we limit our exposure or filter some of this out?

If you do find test results that show there's PFAS in your water, or even if you feel like you just want to do it anyways, you can figure out if your water system has started treating for it.

So there are certain kinds of filters that are effective for removing PFAS, and your water system might already be using those.

They might be in the process of installing them.

So check to see if they are doing that.