PFAS: What They Are, Why They're in Your Water
And What the SUPER Filter Does About Them
- PFAS per and polyfluoroalkyl substances are present in the water supply of a significant and growing percentage of American households.
- They're NOT addressed by standard municipal water treatment, and they represent a genuinely different kind of water quality concern than the disinfection residuals and hardness minerals that water treatment products have traditionally focused on.
- PFAS compounds are removed by activated carbon primarily through adsorption. The key variables are surface area, contact time, and media quality.Catalytic carbon's high surface area and the SUPER Filter's upflow design which maximizes the contact time between water and media combine to produce PFAS reduction of up to 99% under typical city water conditions. The addition of bone char provides supplementary adsorption surface area for certain PFAS compounds that carbon alone addresses less completely.
What PFAS Are
PFAS are a family of more than 12,000 synthetic chemical compounds characterized by extremely strong carbon-fluorine bonds the same property that makes them useful in industrial and consumer applications also makes them essentially indestructible in the natural environment.
They were developed starting in the 1940s and became ubiquitous in manufacturing: nonstick cookware coatings, waterproof clothing treatments, food packaging, firefighting foam, semiconductors, and hundreds of industrial processes all involve PFAS compounds. Because they don't break down, they've accumulated in soil, groundwater, surface water, and eventually in municipal water supplies.
Why They're Called Forever Chemicals
The carbon-fluorine bond in PFAS is among the strongest chemical bonds in organic chemistry. No natural process breaks it down at any meaningful rate under environmental conditions. PFAS released decades ago are still present in water and soil today. They accumulate in human blood and tissue. Once PFAS enter a water supply, they can't be diluted or naturally degraded to a point of insignificance.
What the EPA Has Done About PFAS in Drinking Water
In April 2024, the EPA finalized maximum contaminant levels for six PFAS compounds in public drinking water the first federal enforceable limits for these substances. The MCL for PFOA and PFOS was set at 4 parts per trillion.
Many municipal systems currently deliver water with PFAS levels above these new limits. In the interim, household point-of-entry filtration is the most practical available option for families who want to reduce PFAS exposure immediately.









