ADVANCEMENT OF THE SCIENCE
entific uncertainty about the health risks of long-term exposure and the magnitude of risk, as well as focuses on applied self-ecacy information that households can easily incor- porate into their everyday routines, such as specific knowledge on which filtration sys- tems do and do not remove PFAS (Frewer, 2004; Lee & You, 2020). As we did not assess the degree to which existing PFAS messaging provides such infor- mation, future research should explore these questions. For example, researchers could assess if public health communicators are spending more time explaining what PFAS are and little time giving advice on how to remove PFAS; if this situation is found to be true, then this communication strategy would reflect a misalignment between what internet users want and what the highest trac websites oer featuring information about PFAS in drinking water in the U.S, according to our results. Reverse osmosis filtration systems have been found to be the most eective, while other commercially available filters vary greatly in their ability to filter PFAS (Herkert, 2020). Yet reverse osmosis filters are expen- sive, which could lead internet users to think about other strategies for avoiding PFAS, such as using cheaper pitcher filters or buying bottled water. Based on interest and search volume, a significant portion of questions involve what types of water products contain PFAS, including questions about common brands of sparkling and bottled water. Thus, if families cannot obtain expensive filtration systems or change less-expensive filters on a regular basis, then it is useful to get informa- tion about types of commercially available water that are safe to consume. This state- ment is particularly true for communities that are highly aected by PFAS contamina- tion, and thus are most likely to seek infor- mation about PFAS (Berthold et al., 2023) but least likely to be served by existing PFAS messaging (Ducatman et al., 2022). Addition- ally, Chow et al. (2021) found that 39% of tested bottled water contained some form of PFAS, demonstrating that information about best purchasing practices would be helpful to immediately reduce PFAS exposure. This study presents a novel use of Google data using Semrush analytical software to gain insights about the types of questions internet information seekers are actively searching for regarding PFAS in their drinking water supply.
Search Volume for Questions Related to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and Water TABLE 1 continued
Question
Search Volume
Can you boil PFAS out of water
40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 40 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
Do Berkey water filters remove PFAS Do Brita water filters remove PFAS Do filters remove PFAS from water Does Pur water filter remove PFAS Does water filtration remove PFAS
How do you remove PFAS from drinking water
How to avoid PFAS in water How to reduce PFAS in water
How to remove PFAS from drinking water
What removes PFAS from water Which water filters remove PFAS
How to test PFAS in water
How to test your water for PFAS
Is PFAS in bottled water
How does PFAS get into water What are PFAS in drinking water Can boiling water remove PFAS Can you filter out PFAS from water Can you filter out PFAS out of water Can you filter PFAS out of your water Can you remove PFAS from water Do any water filters remove PFAS Do fridge water filters remove PFAS Do home water filters remove PFAS
Do water filters filter out PFAS
Do water filters filter PFAS
Do water filters get rid of PFAS
Do whole house water filters remove PFAS
Does a water filter remove PFAS
Does boiling water kill PFAS
Does boiling water remove PFAS chemicals Does Brita water filter remove PFAS Does Culligan water filter remove PFAS
Does my water filter remove PFAS
Does reverse osmosis remove PFAS from drinking water
How are PFAS removed from water How to filter out PFAS from water
How to filter out PFAS in water
continued
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Volume 88 • Number 1
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