Many different man-made chemical substances have been used to develop retail products over the past century. These are most often referred to as PFAS and PFOS or perfluorooctane sulfonate, perfluoroalkyl substances and polyfluoroalkyl substances. PFAS have been used to create materials like packaging, cloth, adhesives, non-stick cookware, and much more. PFOS is known for the development of things like cleaners and stain repellents.
Groundwater Pollution
There is also the PFOA, or Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) which is used worldwide as an industrial surfactant in chemical processes and as a material feedstock. It is important to know that all of these chemicals have come to be known of great health concern worldwide, especially with at the levels in which they are taking over our groundwater.
With many of the common materials that we see and use in daily life containing these dangerous chemicals, it is important to recognize the fact that they are the worst pollutants in the world. So many of our industrial and manufacturing plants rely on chemicals like perfluoroalkyl to complete the production process, with about 70% of their industrial waste being dumped into local water bodies like lakes, ponds, and rivers at the end of the day.
Troubles With Existing Groundwater Contamination
With so much dumping complete by corporations around the world, along with thousands of chemical spills that occur from trucks, trains, and other transportation methods, we are running out of clean groundwater. At this point, only about one percent of the world’s groundwater is lean enough for drinking, even though groundwater makes up about 95% of our country’s fresh water. It makes up the drinking water to have the people here in the United States, but with those numbers, it is likely that a majority of the country doesn’t have suitable drinking water. Water treatment systems and cleaning filters don’t seem to clean completely.
With so much chemical damage having been done to the earth with these chemicals that have helped out industrial processes there is a great deal of work to be done to repair our groundwater. Several processes have been developed to work for improvement, including groundwater monitoring and remediation, along with many other filtering and cleaning processes for sewers and other local water treatment plants.
