China: Nearly 100 million people are supplied 'unsafe' drinking water

"A team from Tsinghua University monitored the levels of per and polyfluoroalkyls (PFAS) – man-made chemicals used in everything from fabrics to pesticides – using data from previous studies," reports South China Morning Post.

By analysing data from 526 drinking water samples across 66 cities with a total population of 450 million, the study found that the concentration of PFAS in more than 20 per cent of the studied cities – 16 in total – exceeded safe levels, the newspaper reported.

China has no national safety standards, so the study used the US state of Vermont’s regulations as the benchmark, the newspaper report said.

The cities, in which high level of toxicity was found in the water, are Wuxi, Hangzhou and Suzhou in eastern China and Foshan in the southern province of Guangdong.

Roland Weber, a co-author of the study and German consultant on persistent organic pollutants, told SOuth China Morning Post that some PFAS were more dangerous than others, especially the chemicals known as PFOA and PFOS, which have been linked to a variety of health risks.

“The European Food Safety Agency recently highlighted four PFAS – including PFOA and PFOS – as particularly problematic and set a low tolerable intake limit [the daily amount deemed safe],” he said.