How to Get PFAS Out of Drinking Water—and Keep It Out

North Carolina is one of America ’s PFAS hot spots.

Long-lasting synthetic chemicals, known as forever chemicals, are found in tap water in thousands of locations around the US .

The health effects of PFAS are frightening—from increasing your risk of cancer and obesity to lowering fertility.

A professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte has come up with a low-cost filter.

There are more than 10,000 PFAS chemicals out there, though some are considered especially harmful.

Some companies advocate instead for long-term containment or storage of PFAS materials underground.

Epic Water Filters , a US -based firm, says it hopes to see its filter on the market as early as later this year .

While Stoiber says the most effective strategy for avoiding PFAS contamination is not to use these chemicals in the first place, countless companies still do, and it could be a long time before they disappear entirely from consumer products, if that ever happens. For now, there is a risk that the Trump administration could weaken the new US water regulations that demand the removal of some PFAS molecules from tap water supplies, says Stoiber . “We are fighting to protect the drinking water laws that were just passed,” she says. “I think all eyes are on that.”.