There's new hope for eliminating PFAS from tap water: pitcher filters

In the still-unfolding global environmental tragedy of "forever chemical" pollution, one tiny bright spot has emerged: some kitchen-counter water filter pitchers can eliminate the harmful PFAS contaminants from drinking water.

That's a sip of good news for residents of an estimated 2,800 communities around the country facing contaminated public water systems, according to the Environmental Working Group, which announced its findings Tuesday along with a new kitchen water filter guide for consumers.

And it's a surprise, said Sydney Evans, senior science analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit.

"This is the first time that a third-party study has shown that some of these countertop pitcher filters … can basically eliminate PFAS," Evans said. "I really didn't know what we were going to see."

More involved treatments include granular activated carbon filter systems, and reverse osmosis systems that run water through a special membrane. Either can be installed at the sink or where the water enters a home, although such whole-house systems can cost thousands of dollars.

PFAS is short for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a family of widely used chemicals with a super-tight fluorine and carbon bond. They're found in firefighting foams and countless products including common household ones such as carpet and tooth floss, and are leaking from landfills and found nearly everywhere in the environment where they persist. They have been linked to numerous health effects such as ulcerative colitis, decreased fertility, thyroid disease, testicular and kidney cancer and low birthweight.

The man-made chemicals were pioneered by Maplewood-based 3M Co., which recently agreed to pay up to $12.5 billion to settle claims that PFAS polluted municipal drinking water systems around the country and to clean it up. It has agreed to stop making all PFAS in 2025.

EWG tested 10 countertop filtered pitchers for sale on the market for 25 different PFAS. It is recommending four that it said removed 100% or nearly 100% of the toxic substances. The prices on the top four ranged from $25 to $350. There are additional costs to replace filters over time.

The group's top choice is the Travel Berkey Water Filter. A large metal countertop urn rather than a plastic pitcher, it's the most expensive of the four but has a filter that lasts more than eight years, which is an unusually long time. The other three are models from Zero Water, Clearly Filtered and Epic Water Filter.

Performance among the 10 varied greatly. The six-cup Brita filter pitcher the group tested, for example, reduced only 66% of the PFAS. Some of the packages have claims to reduce PFOA and PFOS — the two oldest and most notorious types of PFAS — but did not claim to eliminate them, Evans said. All of them reduced PFAS "to some extent," she said.

The Minnesota Department of Health can't speak to the results because it doesn't test consumer products like the pitchers, said agency spokeswoman Andrea Ahneman. She noted that all water-treatment systems need regular maintenance and will lose their effectiveness over time if they aren't maintained. Minnesotans connected to community public water systems can check their water for PFAS at the Interactive Dashboard for PFAS Testing in Drinking Water. The agency also provides a Home Water Treatment Fact Sheet.

EWG said it's not clear what the active ingredient is in all the pitcher filters because some claim it's proprietary. Some contain small versions of granular activated carbon filters. Those "GAC" filters are familiar to many people in Washington County, ground zero for PFAS contamination in Minnesota where the state has supplied free whole-house GAC water filter systems to people who rely on private wells polluted with PFAS.

The effectiveness of kitchen filter pitchers provides a good option for some people wanting to take action but is no solution or substitute to larger community efforts to get PFAS out of drinking water, Evans said. Clean water should be a right, not a privilege, she added.

"It is so unfair to expect people to be responsible for their own water treatment," Evans said.

In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed for the first time strict enforceable limits on six PFAS in drinking water, set to be finalized next year. The standards will require water utilities to test and treat for PFAS to those levels.