Nearly half of US prisons draw water likely contaminated with toxic PFAS – report

‘We need to think about who is exposed and has the least agency to mitigate their exposure.’ Photograph: hoozone/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Nearly half of US prisons draw water from sources likely contaminated with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new research finds.

At least around 1 million people incarcerated in the US, including 13,000 juveniles, are estimated to be housed in the prisons, and they are especially vulnerable to the dangerous chemicals because there is little they can do to protect themselves, said Nicholas Shapiro, a study co-author at the University of California in Los Angeles.