Preparing for effective, adaptive risk communication about per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking water

Abstract Drinking water contamination and the potential subsequent long‐term adverse health outcomes is an issue of high importance and personal interest to affected communities. Per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) further complicate these issues through their technical complexity; evolving scientific and public health data; and inconsistent, incomplete, and evolving governmental guidance on screening and mitigation. The use of a community‐specific adaptive risk communication strategy can allow municipalities to assess and mitigate PFAS while addressing community concerns. Utilizing demographics data and the qualitative observations of the community's concerns based on social media and news activity, the study team prepared two outreach strategies for PFAS assessment and mitigation. Overall, application of this strategy to two different case studies revealed that the framework is sufficiently flexible to meet specific community needs. Evaluation of the communities' risk perception factors showed that while there were some commonalities, sufficiently different risk perception factors existed, which necessitated a community‐specific strategy. Article Impact Statement Creation of a community‐specific outreach plan for drinking water per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances issues is necessary for effective risk communication and outreach.