More Than A Dozen “Forever Chemicals” Found In Sydney Tap Water

Sydney and Blue Mountain residents have been warned that PFAS chemicals, also known as “Forever Chemicals”, have been found in larger numbers than previously recorded in Sydney tap water.

UNSW researchers have found twenty-one new PFAS chemicals in Sydney’s tap water, bringing the known amount of to thirty-one types.

Researchers state there is a need to keep monitoring the chemicals, yet an NSW Health webinar on PFAS for general practitioners emphasised that exposure to PFAS chemicals is a low-risk concern for human health.

PFAS compounds, commonly known as “Forever Chemicals” due to their unbreakable nature, resisting the environment and the human body for decades.

Sydney and Blue Mountains exposure through tap water

Elevated levels of PFAS chemicals have been exposed to residents in the Blue Mountains through firefighting foams and infected drinking water.

The exposure to high levels of PFAS chemicals extends from Mount Victoria to Glen Brook, with 78,000 residents in the area.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority issued a warning that people should limit their consumption of fish from Wentworth Falls Lake, due to testing the surface water and fish for PFAS.

Lead Research Professor William Alexander Donald states that Sydney tap water had high levels of PFBA, which is “short chain PFAS that is being used as a replacement for the banned substances, PFOS and PFOA.”

“It shows this idea that you can make tweaks to these chemicals to get around using the banned substances, but then … it ends up in our tap water.”

“We were also surprised by finding 6:2 diPAP. This study reports the first detection of this PFAS in tap water globally,” Professor Donald said.

“Sydney’s water meets current Australian standards, but when considering health benchmarks used in other countries, some samples were near or above safety limits. Detecting PFAS not previously reported in tap water highlights that our monitoring programs are now uncovering more of the chemicals present in our supply.”

Though the thought of unnatural chemicals in your drinking water is nerve-racking, an expert in clinical pharmacology at the University of Sydney, Professor Nick Buckley, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the levels of PFAS exposure in humans were mostly “tiny traces”.

“There was limited or no evidence for a strong link with human disease, including cancer and high cholesterol,” he said.