Overlooked Forever Chemical TFA Found in Most New Jersey Tap Water and Bottled Drinks

A class of so-called forever chemicals that has largely escaped routine water testing is far more common in everyday drinks than previously recognized, according to researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. In what the team describes as the first statewide monitoring study of ultra-short-chain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, conducted in the United States, the researchers detected trifluoroacetic acid, commonly abbreviated as TFA, in more than 91 percent of tap-water samples collected across all 21 New Jersey counties and in nearly 80 percent of commercially available bottled beverages they analyzed. The findings, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters, expose a significant blind spot in conventional PFAS monitoring programs, which have concentrated almost exclusively on longer-chain compounds such as PFOA and PFOS that have dominated regulatory attention and public concern for the better part of two decades.

The chemistry behind this blind spot is central to understanding why TFA has flown under the radar for so long. Most people have heard of perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid because these compounds have been the focus of regulations and water testing for years, but TFA is fundamentally different, explained Siwei Gu, a postdoctoral researcher in NJIT’s Emerging Contaminants Research Laboratory and lead author of the study. TFA is much smaller in molecular size, highly soluble in water, and does not bind strongly to many filter materials that work well for capturing traditional PFAS. Those properties matter enormously in practice. Standard analytical methods and standard treatment trains were engineered around larger molecules that interact readily with activated carbon and ion-exchange resins, so the smallest members of the PFAS family can slip through both the instruments and the treatment barriers that were designed to stop their larger relatives.

To investigate these often-overlooked compounds, the research team analyzed 113 samples in total, including 70 tap-water samples drawn from communities across New Jersey and 43 commercially available bottled beverages purchased for the study. Using a specialized laboratory method capable of measuring compounds that conventional testing procedures struggle to detect, they screened for five ultra-short-chain PFAS. TFA was by far the most frequently detected compound, appearing in 64 of the 70 tap-water samples and in 34 of the 43 bottled beverages. Although concentrations varied geographically, at least one tap-water sample from every single New Jersey county contained detectable levels of TFA, meaning that no corner of the state was entirely free of the compound in the samples collected.

The concentrations the team measured provide a useful quantitative picture of exposure. Among tap-water samples with detectable TFA, the median concentration was 352 nanograms per liter, with higher county averages observed in several northern and northeastern counties, including Essex, Hudson and Bergen. The highest TFA concentration detected in any New Jersey tap-water sample was 1,360 nanograms per liter. Those figures alone would have made the study noteworthy, but the bottled-beverage results proved even more striking and, by the researchers’ own account, unexpected. We anticipated finding trifluoroacetic acid in drinking water, as previous studies in Europe had reported its widespread occurrence, said Arjun Venkatesan, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at NJIT and director of the Emerging Contaminants Research Laboratory. However, what surprised us was how frequently it was detected, occurring in 64 of the 70 tap-water samples collected across New Jersey and 34 of the 43 bottled beverages analyzed.

The most notable finding involved the considerable differences between plain bottled water and beverages containing added ingredients. Among the 43 bottled beverages tested, the 12 formulated beverages, meaning products with ingredients beyond water, had an average TFA concentration approximately 52 times higher than the 31 plain bottled waters. Concentrations in some electrolyte waters and sports drinks were particularly elevated, with the highest single measurement reaching 94,100 nanograms per liter, a figure that dwarfs the 1,360 nanograms per liter maximum recorded in New Jersey tap water. That roughly seventy-fold gap between the most contaminated tap sample and the most contaminated beverage raises an obvious and uncomfortable question: if the water going into these products is not the primary source of the TFA, what is?

The researchers have not yet determined why some formulated beverages contained substantially higher concentrations than plain bottled water. Unlike plain bottled water, these products may include sweeteners, flavorings, electrolytes and other additives that could introduce additional sources of TFA into the finished product. One possible explanation is that ingredients used in these beverages or certain manufacturing processes may be contributing to the elevated TFA concentrations, Gu said. However, we did not analyze individual ingredients or investigate the manufacturing processes, so we cannot definitively identify the sources of TFA in these products. That caveat is important. The study establishes a pattern and a hypothesis-generating signal, not a proven mechanism, and the team is explicit that pinpointing whether additives, processing aids, packaging interactions or some combination of factors is responsible will require follow-up work at the ingredient and process level.

TFA can enter the environment through multiple pathways, including the breakdown of certain fluorinated refrigerants, pesticides and other chemicals. Once formed, it can be transported through precipitation into surface water and drinking-water sources. Its persistence and high mobility also make it exceptionally challenging to remove through conventional water treatment. This combination of traits, chemical stability that earns PFAS compounds their forever-chemical nickname together with a molecular structure that resists capture by standard filtration media, means that TFA can accumulate and circulate in water systems with few natural or engineered sinks. Conventional PFAS treatment technologies, including granular activated carbon and ion-exchange resins, are generally less effective at capturing TFA than many longer-chain PFAS compounds, and specialized testing methods are needed to reliably measure these smaller contaminants in the first place.

Despite the ubiquity of the detections, the researchers are careful to frame what the findings do and do not imply about health. Detecting TFA does not necessarily establish an immediate health risk, and scientific understanding of the compound’s long-term effects in humans remains limited, even as some toxicological studies have raised concerns about potential developmental and reproductive effects. I think it is important for consumers to understand that detecting a chemical in drinking water or beverages does not necessarily mean there is an immediate health risk, Venkatesan said. The potential health implications depend on the concentration, frequency of exposure, and how much of the chemical is consumed over time. That dose-and-duration framing is standard toxicological reasoning, but it also underscores how little is known: without robust human-health data for TFA and without regulatory limits comparable to those emerging for PFOA and PFOS, both utilities and consumers are left interpreting detections without a clear benchmark.

The study’s authors also emphasize that their work represents an initial snapshot of contamination rather than a comprehensive assessment of New Jersey’s drinking-water systems. Additional sampling will be needed to determine how concentrations vary over time and to identify the sources responsible for geographic differences between counties. Expanding monitoring efforts, they argue, will be essential to understanding the extent of contamination and determining whether additional treatment measures are warranted. At NJIT, the Emerging Contaminants Research Laboratory is already investigating technologies designed to improve PFAS removal, including pretreatment methods that enhance the ability of activated carbon to capture difficult-to-remove PFAS. The team plans to expand monitoring beyond New Jersey, investigate potential sources of TFA and examine how concentrations vary across drinking-water supplies and treatment systems, with the ultimate goal of connecting improved detection to more effective and affordable technologies that utilities can deploy against emerging contaminants.

The study, titled Occurrence of Ultra-Short Chain PFASs in Bottled Beverages and New Jersey Tap Water, was authored by Siwei Gu, Santhoshi Chitthaluri, Ebenezer Etsiwah, Bishnu Pandey and Arjun K. Venkatesan, and was supported in part by a faculty start-up grant from NJIT. Its broader significance may extend well beyond the Garden State. If TFA is this widespread in one of the most closely monitored water systems in the country, a state that has been at the forefront of PFAS regulation, the same blind spot almost certainly exists elsewhere. The research suggests that as regulators and utilities race to remove the legacy PFAS compounds they can now measure, an entire generation of smaller, more mobile and more persistent relatives may be passing unnoticed through the very systems built to keep drinking water clean, and that the beverages consumers reach for as alternatives to tap water may, in some cases, contain far higher concentrations than the water they are meant to replace.

Subject of Research: Occurrence of ultra-short-chain PFAS, particularly trifluoroacetic acid, in New Jersey tap water and bottled beverages

Article Title: NJIT study finds overlooked 'forever chemicals' widespread in New Jersey tap water and bottled beverages

Article References: NJIT study finds overlooked 'forever chemicals' widespread in New Jersey tap water and bottled beverages. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: PFAS, trifluoroacetic acid, TFA, drinking water, bottled beverages, New Jersey, water treatment, emerging contaminants, environmental monitoring, NJIT, forever chemicals, water safety