People like beer: we can survive more than 187.9 million kiloliter (49.6 billion gallons) worldwide in one year.
However, new studies add this beloved drink to a long list of products containing PFA (polyfluorcular substance), also known as “forever chemicals”.
The PFA earned that nickname because they are not easily different in the environment. There are about 12,000 different types of chemical chemicals, and although health is usually unknown, especially two – PFOA (perfluorooktan acid) and PFOS (perfluoroktaissulphonic acid) – are associated with negative health results, including increased risk of cancer and birth defects.
A team of non -profit research at the Triangle Institute scientists used methods used by the Environmental Protection Agency to find out how the PFA falls into beer and at what level.
“As a beer drinker, I myself wondered if the PFA water supply has entered our braids,” says toxicologist Jennifer Hoponick Redmon.
It turns out quite a lot. The team measured the PFA level above the maximum EPA, which some claims to be still not high enough to protect people from these chemicals.
Although breweries usually have their own water filtration and processing systems, they are not necessarily designed to remove PFA. Up to seven liters of water can only be used for one liter of beer, and whatever PFA contaminants are in that water, it is likely that you will still be there when you break cold.
The team bought 23 different types of beer, each of which represented at least five cans, from the North Carolina alcoholic beverage store in 2021.
At least one PFA was found in almost every tin. Many had a certain level of PFO. This study tested three beer – two of the Upper Tomb Fear River Basin in North Carolina, and one of Michigan exceeded the maximum limit of the EPA PFOA, and one beer from the lower Cape Fear River Basin exceeded the pf.
Medium repeat concentrations (5 samples in one beer; PPT) PFA, identified in anonymous beer. (Hoponick Redmon et al., The environment. SCI. Technolin.2025)
These boundaries were created by EPA 2023. Six different types of PFA species are designed for drinking water instead of beer. But since there is no existing system, how much PFA is Acceptable beer – and, like drinking water, is for direct consumption – the Hoponick Redmon team realized that these drinking water standards could be repeated.
“After adapting the EPA method 533 to analyze PFA beer sold in US retail stores, we found that the beer PFA correlates with PFA types and concentration in the municipal drinking water used in the brewery,” the team reports.
“North Carolina beer, especially in the Cape Fear River Basin, was usually found in more PFA species than Michigan or California beer, reflecting the variety of sources in North Carolina.”
PFA detection and concentrations were particularly enlarged beer produced in North Carolina, California and Michigan.
International beer (one of the Netherlands and two from Mexico) was less likely to have found PFA, which may think that countries of origin have no contamination of the same degree in the US.
“Our conclusions show a strong connection between the PFA drinking water and beer, and beer is made in places where the local drinking water has a higher PFA, including beer levels of beer levels, indicating that drinking water is the main way of contamination of the PFA contamination,” the team concludes.
They hope that the conclusions offered the breweries to try to remove the PFA from the water, which falls into their beer, and to emphasize the importance of politics to restrict the PFA in general.
This study has been published Environmental Science and Technology.