Researchers point to contaminated water after ‘forever chemicals’ found in all but one of 23 sampled beers
All but one of 23 beers sampled for toxic Pfas “forever chemicals” contained the compounds, new research finds, raising safety questions about one of the world’s most popular beverages.
The researchers checked craft beer from multiple states, major domestic brands, and several international labels.
When possible, they compared the measurements to Pfas levels in the county water supply where each was bottled, revealing a “strong correlation” that suggests contaminated water is driving most of the problem. The levels were often above some drinking water limits for Pfas.
Trump will fix this! He will cut funding to the research so it will not be detected anymore. There, problem solved.
Can’t be guilty of arsenic in the water if nobody figures it out.
Exactly! He also wanted to stop testing for covid to bring down the number of covid cases, so…
Wouldn’t it be more surprising if they found something that doesn’t contain PFAS? At this point I’m assuming it’s everywhere.
Right? If it’s in drinking water, why wouldn’t it also be in beer?
For those who wish to know more about the origin and spread of PFAS
Links to the recent Veritasium video on PFAS aka forever chemicals. Describes the story of how PFAS were discovered, including interviews from the lawyer that got Du Pont to settle with the farmer, and how he continued to press the industry but they kept finding ways to weasel out of responsibility for contamination of waterways and global air. The host tests his own blood for various types of PFAS and uses online PFAS estimators to help understand that where he was living for ~10 years had higher levels in the water, which tracks to the higher levels seen in his blood. There’s still PFAS in everyday consumer products - anything slippery or waterproof. They also interview someone researching PFAS filtration. Plenty more interesting bits in the video. Worth a watch.
So… it’s more hazardous to drink water than beer? You son of a bitch… I’m in!
Just turn your drinking water into beer. Problem solved!
“The levels were often above some drinking water limits”
Yea… but dude… it’s beer
Good thing the federal EPA is really taking PFAS seriously!
That was a joke, they’re walking the regulations back of course.
Lol. That stuff is already everywhere. Which is sad.
It is weird we arent stopping the use of it either, so its still leeching into the water.
People Tried limiting it. But the chemical lobby is huge …
The property that makes it such a troublesome pollutant is the same reason people buy it and use it. In that respect PFAS’ are fairly critical for a lot of manufacturing and engineering problems. -We could definitely reduce our usage of it, though.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.4c11265#_i24
4.4. PFAS in Beer and Drinking Water Occurrence
Beers selected based on their brewery location’s proximity to known elevated levels of PFAS in drinking water had 15 times the odds of having one or more detection of PFAS compared to larger-scale U.S. or international beers selected based on consumer popularity without known PFAS sources in municipal water. The PFSAs and PFOA had the highest detection rates and were also among the most frequently detected chemicals in drinking water across the United States in recent studies. (26,28,55,67) The substitution of long-chain PFSAs with short-chain PFSAs (PFBS) has also been observed with high detection rates in recent drinking water studies as well as beers we analyzed. (26,28,55,61)
North Carolina beers, particularly those within the Cape Fear River Basin, generally had detections of more PFAS species than Michigan or California beers, which reflects the variety of PFAS sources in NC. (68) The two beers with the largest number of different PFAS detected were both located in the upper regions of the Cape Fear River Basin in Chatham and Alamance counties, where larger variability in the types of PFAS as well as higher concentrations of PFAS have been observed in surface waters in the Haw River. (14,68) HFPO–DA was detected in both beer and raw water from a drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) in the lower region of the Cape Fear River Basin. (14) The DWTP at which HFPO–DA was detected pulls in water from the Cape Fear River downstream from a fluorochemical manufacturing plant that produces the chemical. (14,69)
Similarities between PFAS in drinking water and beer were also observed in Michigan, where Kalamazoo County had the highest reported average PFOA concentration from the state-reported drinking water of all counties in the three states. The beer brewed in this county also had the highest measured PFOA concentration of all of the beers in the study. The correlations between ∑PFAS, PFOA, and PFBS levels in beers were linked to local drinking water contamination.
Approximately 18% of breweries operating in the United States are located within zip codes served by public water supplies with detectable PFAS in drinking water as reported by UCMR5 (as of July 2024; Figures 6 and S2). We found that international beers were less likely to have detectable PFAS or PFAS at higher levels, which may reflect the lack of or lower levels of PFAS in drinking water in these regions. The first study of PFAS in tap water in Latin America found that PFAS were not generally associated with any drinking water source in Guatemala City, the region’s largest city, which lacked PFAS manufacturing industries; rather, PFAS occurrence in tap water was instead associated with plastic water storage tank usage. (70)
Figure 6. U.S. Map showing total PFAS (ppt; color scale) in zip codes served by public drinking water supplies reported by UCMR5 (July 2024) and locations of currently operating breweries (light blue circles). See Figure S2 for additional maps zoomed into several regions.
Who on Earth is the one with none? That’s the real story here.
“…international beers were less likely to have detectable PFAS or PFAS at higher levels, which may reflect the lack of or lower levels of PFAS in drinking water in these regions. The first study of PFAS in tap water in Latin America found that PFAS were not generally associated with any drinking water source in Guatemala City, the region’s largest city, which lacked PFAS manufacturing industries”
PFAS are in the water cycle so I’m skeptical that any place is truly clear of them. The worst places are proximate to PFAS production sites, many of which are in the USA. Prolly not a good idea to open a brewery within 100 miles of any of those, but betting many are…
I’m so glad the U.S. is taking PFAS serious…oh wait.
Oh wow so they found PFAS in piss?
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In water, fine… IN BEEER!!?
It’s in every source of water on the planet, including people. It collects in brains and testes and other organs and we’ve been hearing about it for ages.
But somehow it’s surprising it’s in beer and oh we gotta write an article about it!
Quite literally, they’ve found caves untouched for millennia that have microplastics in them. They’re inescapable at this point.
It’s pedantic, but PFAs & microplastics are two very different things.
The article says it was found in American beer but not in international beer
It says it was found in international beers as well
raising safety questions about one of the world’s most popular beverages
Wait, I thought this article was about American beer…
That was a better joke 30 years ago. 40 years ago, it was hilarious.
Fine. I’ll grant there are some good craft beers. Too much emphasis on IPAs, but once you find some that meet your taste, we do have some good ones. Yeungling Black & Tans are pretty good, and I wouldn’t even call them craft.
Yeungling started in 1829 when there was only 24 States. Supposedly the oldest brewery in the U.S.
Believe it or not, you don’t have to be American or live in America to drink American beer
Drinking beer may cause eternal life. Got it. Good news for a Friday!
If you’re worried about drinking pfas wait till you hear about what alcohol does…
Alcohol has some positive effects too while PFAS is just shitty.
Alcohol makes me feel nice. Do PFAS do that?
Exactly!
Great recent video by Howtown analyzing many past studies that report “1 to 2 drinks a day is healthy.” TLDR any alcohol is bad for you, but a little isn’t all that bad
Lembot, I see your other replys to people saying similar things. Just linking this video as its great and people reading this comment should watch it.
To be fair “having fun with friends on the weekend and enjoying a beer” is a positive thing
But yes, for health, any amount is bad
But that’s good for your mental health. So where draw the line? How about everyone just do what feels good (without hurting others) and don’t try to live forever.
that’s my point
Alcohol is literal poison…?
So? Almost anything is. My statement was “Alcohol has some positive effects too”, not “Alcohol has only positive effects”
The implication is that inebriation is a positive attribute of alcoholic beverages.
And heck, I suppose if I were given two choices between a poison that causes pain during the entire poisoning process, and a poison that only causes pain towards the end…I’d take the latter.
100% there is a reason you need kidneys to be able to drink it. The older I get and the fact I don’t drink makes this seem almost insane to me that drinking is as popular as it is.
Nope. The general medical consensus is that there’s no safe or healthy level of alcohol consumption.
Facepalm. Reread what I wrote carefully and in full. Pay attention to the word “too”.
But it really doesn’t apart from being effective at treating social anxiety. The “health benefits” that are associated with alcohol are being disproven
Plus, any benefits it provides would still end up as a net negative health impact because of the fact that no amount is healthy.
Read even more carefully. You’re not careful enough. Don’t rush. Think.
