An honest, basic question for HNers who are much more knowledgeable about this than I am: How much should I care about this? I hear a lot of talk about "forever chemicals" in the news, but I have no idea what the literature really says about what these chemicals are and whether/why I should be worried about them.
My prior here is that human-made industrial chemicals are probably not things I want in my water. But that's about as far as I'm able to go here without a prohibitive amount of research.
Edit: As others here have pointed out, it would also be great to know what, if anything, an individual can do about this contamination.
Concentration is usually the biggest concern- "the dose makes the poison", so to speak.
Unfortunately, the "forever" moniker is earned because these chemicals don't readily break down. Bio-accumulation is inevitable, which makes it that much harder to determine what a "safe" level of exposure is.
Even so, I don't think the jury is out yet on what the effects of exposure to many of them even are, though several seem to influence hormone levels at least.
As an individual, you can donate blood regularly. There was a study done that found that repeated whole blood or plasma donations were both effective at reducing PFAS levels over time.
That is fascinating. Is that true of toxins that accumulate in the body generally, or specific known classes?
It never occurred to me that blood removal would be an effective method, but there is a certain logic to it. Although it also seems like you'd have to do it an awful number of times to make a difference.
Is that true of toxins that accumulate in the body generally, or specific known classes?
I don't know, I'm definitely no expert in this area, and haven't looked for any similar studies for other toxins, so I'm not sure if other similar research has been done.
My prior here is that human-made industrial chemicals are probably not things I want in my water. But that's about as far as I'm able to go here without a prohibitive amount of research.
Edit: As others here have pointed out, it would also be great to know what, if anything, an individual can do about this contamination.