TIME
BY JEFFREY KLUGER

What’s in your faucet can be a dangerous thing. If you’re like an estimated 200 million Americans, every time you turn on the tap, a host of contaminants come out with the water. Among these are trace amounts of PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. Also known as “forever chemicals”—because that’s pretty much how long they linger in the environment—exposure to these ubiquitous manufacturing chemicals have been linked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to potential health consequences including decreased fertility, hypertension in pregnant people, increased risk of certain cancers (especially kidney cancer), developmental delays in children, hormonal irregularities, elevated cholesterol, reduced effectiveness of the immune system, and more.

PFAS are used in hundreds of products, including shampoos, soaps, non-stick pots and pans, food packaging, fire-fighting foam, fabrics, and carpeting, and they’ve recently been detected in toilet paper and menstrual products. But it’s PFAS in the water supply that has long been of the greatest concern, simply because while our encounters with some products may be infrequent, we all need water to survive.

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