This article discusses how Chesapeake states grapple with ‘forever chemical’ contaminating drinking water. Widely used in consumer and industrial products, including fire-fighting foam, PFAS are now cropping up in ground water near military bases, airports, factories.
The suburban community midway between Harrisburg and York is among the latest nationwide to discover that the water they’ve been drinking has been infiltrated by some widely used but poorly understood chemicals generally referred to as PFAS — short for per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances.
PFAS are a large group of manmade chemicals that since the 1940s have been used in a host of consumer and industrial products, including nonstick cookware, waterproof clothing, stain-resistant fabrics and carpets, some cosmetics and some firefighting foams.