What we eat and the water we drink are often treated as separate environmental issues. In reality, they are closely connected. Agricultural chemicals can move from fields into rivers, lakes…
“Dirty dozens” is a memorable phrase—but it can also be misleading. In discussions about drinking water, it is often used to describe a group of persistent chemicals that remain in…
Pesticides are designed to control weeds, insects, fungi and other organisms that threaten crops. That purpose does not make them harmless once they leave the field. Rainfall, irrigation and soil…
What does “the Dirty Dozen” mean in the PFAS debate? When people search for “the Dirty Dozen” and PFAS-free water, they are often referring to a group of highly persistent…
Choosing a water filter for PFAS removal is not as simple as picking the product with the largest number of claims on its packaging. “Reduces contaminants” can mean many things,…
Safe drinking water depends on more than appearance. Clear water can still contain microorganisms capable of causing serious illness, including bacteria, viruses and protozoan parasites. This is why water disinfection…
Across the United States, water quality is shaped by more than rainfall, geology, and geography. The country’s major biomes—from Arctic tundra and boreal forests to deserts, grasslands, wetlands, and coastal…
PFAS contamination is no longer a problem limited to specialist laboratories or industrial sites. These persistent chemicals have been detected in rivers, groundwater, drinking-water sources, soils and even household products.…
PFAS are often called “forever chemicals” because many of them persist in the environment for years or even decades. They have been used since the 1940s in products designed to…
“PFAS-free” sounds straightforward. A product either contains PFAS or it does not—right? In practice, the label can be more complicated. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a large family of…