Drinking water analyses

A major difference between PFAS and many other organic pollutants is that most of the substances have a relatively high water solubility, which applies specially to fluorinated sulfonates and acids (e.g. PFOS approx. 550 and PFOA> 3500 mg/l). The aquatic systems therefore often become a sink for these compounds and this can affect drinking water extracted from both surface and groundwater.

Several cases of contaminated drinking water sources have been detected over the last 10 years, in SE for example Uppsala and Ronneby. Against this background, national food administrations have introduced guideline values. With EU's revised drinking water directive (EU 2020/2184; DWD) PFAS has become mandatory. EFSA's (EU Food Safety Authority) TWI (tolerable weekly intake) value has further accelerated the development with additional national limit values for PFAS4 (see “PFAS legislation” for more info) in SE and DK with other countries that potentially may follow. In the US a new national primary drinking water regulation has been proposed (March 23) covering in total six PFAS.