Beer drinkers beware: Scientists find 'forever chemicals' exceeding EPA limits in American brews
A team from the ACS' Environmental Science & Technology conducted a study to find out how polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) or "forever chemicals" get into beers and how much they contain.
"As an occasional beer drinker myself, I wondered whether PFAS in water supplies was making its way into our pints. I hope these findings inspire water treatment strategies and policies that help reduce the likelihood of PFAS in future pours," research lead Jennifer Hoponick Redmon said.
While breweries have water filtration and treatment systems, these are not designed to prevent PFAS from entering into the batch.
By modifying an EPA testing tool for analyzing levels of PFAS in drinking water, Redmon and her team tested 23 beers.
The team tested beers from areas with known documented water system contamination along with some other popular beers with unknown water sources.
Through their research, it was found that beer brewed in North Carolina, California, and Michigan had elevated levels of this PFAS.
The researchers found a strong correlation between PFAS concentrations in municipal drinking water and levels in locally brewed beer.
In 95% of the beer tested, PFAS was found with perfluorooctanesulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid, two forever chemicals with recently established EPA limits in drinking water.
International beers tested — one from Holland and two from Mexico — were less likely to have detectable PFAS.
"Our findings indicate a strong link between PFAS in drinking water and beer, with beers brewed in areas with higher PFAS in local drinking water translating to higher levels of PFAS in beer, showing that drinking water is a primary route of PFAS contamination in beer," the research team concluded.
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