Health authorities insist New South Wales' drinking water is safe despite potentially cancer-causing chemicals being detected in the water supply at a number of locations. There are calls for Australia to drastically slash the amount of so called forever chemicals allowed in tap water after they were deemed to be carcinogenic.
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00:00In some parts of Australia, when you have a refreshing glass of H2O, you might also
00:07be swallowing traces of P-Fola and P-Fos, two industrial chemicals used in firefighting
00:12foam and things like non-stick fry pans.
00:15These chemicals are long-acting in the environment, they don't degrade, and they're often known
00:20as the forever chemicals for that reason.
00:22In the past year, the chemicals have been detected in drinking water in the Sydney suburb
00:26of North Richmond, the coastal hamlet of Jervis Bay and Newcastle.
00:31Health authorities say there's no cause for alarm.
00:34I'm confident that our drinking water in Sydney is safe.
00:38I know I drink it and my family drink it, so I have no concerns about the safety and
00:43quality.
00:44The levels detected on those occasions have still been within Australian drinking water
00:48guidelines, but the US EPA says there is no level of exposure that is without risk, and
00:53campaigners agree.
00:55I would be surprised if there are many places where drinking water isn't contaminated.
01:00Unfortunately, the contamination of P-Fos is ubiquitous across the country because there's
01:07so many sources of contamination.
01:10The levels of the chemical permitted in Australian drinking water are now 140 times higher than
01:15that which will be allowed in the United States, which recently radically overhauled its drinking
01:20water standards.
01:21One of the first things Australia has to do is get out of the dark ages.
01:25It's got to update its acceptable levels or tolerable levels for drinking water.
01:32The Australian drinking water guidelines are in the process of being reviewed.