Cancer linked 'forever chemicals' detected in Sydney's drinking water

Sydney, Aug 20: Authorities in Sydney said on Tuesday that they have detected cancer linked "forever chemicals" in several of Sydney's drinking water catchments for the first time.

Sydney Water confirmed that testing conducted in June and July detected per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a collective term for more than 10,000 chemicals also known as "forever chemicals" because of their persistence in the environment and human body, at water filtration plants across the New South Wales (NSW) city.

The testing detected the highest levels of contamination at Cascade Dam water filtration plants in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, which supplies water to nearly 30,000 people, Xinhua news agency reported. Sydney Water found the PFAS perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) at up to 0.0164 micrograms per litre and PFHxS, another type of PFAS, at up to 0.0142 micrograms per litre at Cascade water filtration plants on June 25.

The chemicals were found in low levels for the first time at three more water filtration plants across Greater Sydney's west and at North Richmond in the north-west where PFAS was previously detected in drinking water in 2019. The results show PFAS concentrations are within Australia's current official drinking water safety guidelines.

However, Australia's guidelines are under review after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in April declared PFAS chemicals as probable carcinogens and found there was no safe level of exposure to PFOS. "There is regular consultation between Sydney Water, WaterNSW and NSW Health to assess any potential risk of PFAS or any other contaminant to Sydney's drinking supply," Sydney Water said in a statement.

The results were published on the same day as a separate Australian-first study that found PFOS in platypuses in NSW. Scientists from Western Sydney University (WSU) detected PFOS in the livers of eight deceased platypuses collected from numerous rivers in NSW not previously thought to be PFOS hotspots.

Endemic to eastern Australia and the island state of Tasmania, the platypus is classified as a near threatened species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.