#polyfluoroalkyl substances

[mindblowingscience]

Nano-cage removes up to 98% of PFAS in tap water tests

Contamination of ground, surface and drinking water by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) affects millions of people world

Contamination of ground, surface and drinking water by perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) affects millions of people worldwide. A promising new method developed by Flinders University scientists paves the way to help remove the most difficult-to-capture variants of these persistent pollutants from water. The research team, led by Flinders ARC Research Fellow Dr. Witold Bloch, has discovered adsorbents that effectively capture PFAS, including short-chain forms that are especially difficult to remove using existing technologies. The study, published in the Angewandte Chemie International Edition , showcases the use of a nano-sized molecular cage that acts as a highly selective "PFAS trap."

Continue Reading.

[rjzimmerman]

Alabama "Forever Chemicals" Plant Creates the Climate Pollution of 125,000 Cars

The plant manufactures PFAS-coated fast food packaging and pumps out loads of a banned ozone-depleting compound.

I highlighted the last paragraph of the excerpt. The quote says it all about this manufacturing process and the Alabama factory.

Excerpt from this story from Truthout:

As evidence mounts that hamburger wrappers and other kinds of grease-proof packaging contaminate food with PFAS, states have started banning the toxic chemicals from food packaging.

Now, a new report provides yet another reason to remove PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, from food wrappers: climate and ozone pollution.

PFAS exposure is linked to immune and developmental system effects, increased risk of preeclampsia in pregnant women, increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers, and higher cholesterol, among other health effects. The Daikin America plant in Decatur, Alabama, which manufactures PFAS used to coat food packaging and textiles, released 240,584 pounds of the ozone-depleting chemical Chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22) — the global warming equivalent of one billion pounds of carbon dioxide — in 2019, according to a new report out Thursday from the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future.

While HCFC-22, used in refrigeration, was banned at the start of last year under the Montreal Protocol, companies are still allowed to produce the compound as a byproduct of making other substances. Advocates say the new report highlights the need to close that loophole — and to use PFAS-free food packaging alternatives.

“The entire world is scrambling to reduce greenhouse gas emissions before their damage to our climate is beyond repair, yet we are letting a company dump hundreds of thousands of pounds of hydrochlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere so that it can produce ‘forever chemicals’ that poison our communities?” Peggy Shepard, executive director of the nonprofit WE ACT for Environmental Justice, who was not involved in the report, said in a prepared statement. “Where is the justice in that?”

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from a press release from the EPA:

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released Preliminary Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 15 (Preliminary Plan 15), which identifies opportunities to better protect public health and the environment through regulation of wastewater pollution. Preliminary Plan 15 announces that EPA will undertake three new rulemakings to reduce contaminants including PFAS and nutrients—from key industries.

“To protect drinking water supplies, recreational waters, and aquatic ecosystems, it is essential that we utilize the latest scientific and technological breakthroughs in wastewater treatment,” said Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox. “This plan illustrates one way that EPA is following science to better protect public health and the environment. Importantly and for the first time, EPA is committing to limit PFAS in wastewater discharges.”

EPA will be initiating three new rulemakings after concluding several studies that were discussed in Effluent Guidelines Program Plan 14. The agency has determined that revised effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) and pretreatment standards are warranted for:

Organic Chemicals, Plastics and Synthetic Fibers category to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discharges from facilities manufacturing PFAS.

Metal Finishing category to address PFAS discharges from chromium electroplating facilities.

Meat and Poultry Products category to address nutrient discharges.

Comments on this proposed rule-making from Our Daily Planet/World War Zero:

The class of chemicals, often called “forever chemicals,” can accumulate in the environment and the human body and contribute to health problems. However, public health and environmental activists say that these rules may be too little too late and that more must be done to protect communities already facing the consequences of rampant PFAS contamination.

Why This Matters: From drinking water to cosmetics to the top of Mount Everest, PFAS are now globally ubiquitous, and wreaking severe havoc on ecosystems and human health. These “forever chemicals” accumulate in the environment over generations and can cause cancer, high blood pressure, severe COVID-19 in humans, and infertility and death in animals.

In the US, 16 million people’s drinking water has already been contaminated, and low-income communities and people of color are disproportionately at risk of exposure. Still, the monitoring, tracking, and regulating of PFAS has been lacking, especially from the federal government.

But the Environmental Working Group says that the new plan won’t cover a vast majority of PFAS sources. “The Environmental Working Group has used EPA enforcement data to identify nearly 30,000 potential industrial dischargers, many of which would not be included in the forthcoming ELGs,” said the organization in a statement. They say that the new rule could cover as few as 14 facilities and fail to regulate wastewater PFAS from other sources like “paper mills, tanneries, textile manufacturers, plastics molders, and metal finishers.” The group also says that the time it will take to implement this rule is far too long.

[rjzimmerman]

From Alaska to Florida, Harmful PFAS Compounds Pollute Water at Multiple Sites in Every State

Excerpt from this story from Ensia/EcoWatch:

Tom Kennedy learned about the long-term contamination of his family's drinking water about two months after he was told that his breast cancer had metastasized to his brain and was terminal.

The troubles tainting his tap: per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a broad category of chemicals invented in the mid-1900s to add desirable properties such as stain-proofing and anti-sticking to shoes, cookware and other everyday objects. Manufacturers in Fayetteville, North Carolina had been discharging them into the Cape Fear River — a regional drinking water source — for decades.

"I was furious," says Kennedy, who lives in nearby Wilmington. "I made the connection pretty quickly that PFAS likely contributed to my condition. Although it's nothing that I can prove."

The double whammy of bad news came more than three years ago. Kennedy, who has outlived his prognosis, is now an active advocate for stiffer regulation of PFAS.

"PFAS is everywhere," he says. "It's really hard to get any change."

Indeed, various forms of PFAS are still used in a spectrum of industrial and consumer products — from nonstick frying pans and stain-resistant carpets to food wrappers and firefighting foam — and have become ubiquitous. The compounds enter the environment anywhere they are made, spilled, discharged or used. Rain can flush them into surface sources of drinking water such as lakes, or PFAS may gradually migrate through the soil to reach the groundwater — another key source of public water systems and private wells.

For the same reasons the chemicals are prized by manufacturers — they resist heat, oil and water — PFAS also persist in the soil, the water and our bodies.

More than 200 million Americans may be drinking PFAS-contaminated water, research suggests. As studies continue to link exposures to a lengthening list of potential health consequences — including links to Covid-19 susceptibility — scientists and advocates are calling for urgent action from both regulators and industry to curtail PFAS use and to take steps to ensure the compounds already in the environment stay out of drinking water.

[rjzimmerman]

White House intervened to weaken EPA guidance on 'forever chemicals'

Documents reviewed by The Hill show the White House intervened as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was weighing a strict ban on imports of products that contain a cancer-linked compound, substantially weakening the guidance.

Excerpt from this story from The Hill:

Documents reviewed by The Hill show the White House intervened as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was weighing a strict ban on imports of products that contain a cancer-linked compound, substantially weakening the guidance.

The guidance in question sought to limit potential exposure to a group of chemicals abbreviated as PFAS, used as a nonstick coating on products ranging from raincoats to carpets to cookware. They’ve been dubbed “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment and the human body.

But as the EPA worked to limit the importation of any product with PFAS inside or out, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stepped in and significantly watered down the guidance in December, barring importation of only those products with a PFAS coating on the outside.

“It appears that OMB aggressively edited the guidance document to make it less protective of human health and the environment and to minimize the scope of a rule that’s intended to protect people from a very toxic class of chemicals,” said Eve Gartner, managing attorney of the toxic exposure and health program at Earthjustice. “It’s troubling that OMB is using its review authority to undermine the protectiveness of a rule that's designed to protect consumers.”

Though widely used, PFAS has been linked with cancer and other ailments and has spurred a push by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to limit use of some variations of the chemical.

[rjzimmerman]

PFAS Chemicals Contaminate U.S. Food Supply, FDA Confirms

Excerpt from this EcoWatch story:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has found per- and polyfluoroalykyl substances, or PFAS, in foods including grocery store meat, fish and chocolate cake, The Associated Press reported Monday.

The findings were first obtained by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and published by the Environmental Working Group, then confirmed by the FDA Monday, CNN reported.

The FDA tests found PFAS in chocolate cake at levels more than 250 times the only federal safety guidelines that exist, for some types of PFAS in drinking water, according to The Associated Press.

"What this calls for is additional research to determine how widespread this contamination is and how high the levels are," Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Linda Birnbaum told The Associated Press. "We have to look at total human exposure — not just what's in the water or what's in the food ... or not just dust. We need to look at the sum totals of what the exposures are."

CNN explained why PFAS contamination is so concerning:

PFAS is a family of nearly 5,000 synthetic chemicals that are extremely persistent in the environment and in our bodies. PFAS is short for perfluoroalky and polyfluoroalkyl substances and includes chemicals known as PFOS, PFOA and GenX, sometimes called forever chemicals. These chemicals all share signature elemental bonds of fluorine and carbon, which are extremely strong and difficult to break down in the environment or in our bodies. These chemicals can easily migrate into the air, dust, food, soil and water and can accumulate in the body. They've been linked to adverse health impacts including liver damage, thyroid disease, decreased fertility, high cholesterol, obesity, hormone suppression and cancer.

They were invented by DuPont in 1938, initially for non-stick cookware. But they are now used by a variety of industries to repel grease and water in items from packaging to carpets to outdoor gear, and they are also an important ingredient in firefighting foam, which is often used by the Defense Department to fight jet fires, The Associated Press reported.

[rjzimmerman]

‘Not a problem you can run away from’: Communities confront the threat of unregulated chemicals in their drinking water

Washington has yet to offer a solution for a ubiquitous class of compounds known as PFAS and the health concerns they raise.

Excerpt from this Washington Post article:

Harvard University researchers say public drinking-water supplies serving more than 6 million Americans have tested for the chemicals at or above the EPA’s threshold — which many experts argue should be far lower to safeguard public health. The level is only an agency guideline; the federal government does not regulate PFAS.

The compounds’ presence has rattled communities from Hoosick Falls, N.Y., to Tucson. They have been particularly prevalent on or near military bases, which have long used PFAS-laden foams in training exercises.

Both houses of Congress held hearings on the problem last year, and lawmakers introduced bills to compel the government to test for PFAS chemicals nationwide and to respond wherever water and soil polluted by them are found. In late November, the head of the EPA vowed that the agency would soon unveil a “national strategy” to address the situation.

Affected communities are still waiting.

“There are some very real human impacts from this stuff,” said Erik Olson, a drinking-water expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “Most people have no idea they are being exposed.”

Michigan is one of the few states where officials are trying to determine the extent of PFAS contamination. Health officials undertook statewide tests this year across 1,380 public water supplies and at more than 400 schools that operate their own wells.

[rjzimmerman]

Senate Committee Moves to Force Public Disclosure of Drinking Water Contamination

Scott Pruitt and White House officials have sought to block the study's release, fearing a "public relations nightmare" that could follow.

Excerpt:

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed a spending bill Thursday that includes report language requiring the Trump administration to release a key scientific study it buried. The study proposed safe levels for fluorinated, or PFAS, chemicals in drinking water at levels nearly six times lower than those the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends.

The amendment to the committee report, authored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. and approved in the Interior-Environmental spending bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services to publish the study within two weeks of the bill becoming law.

Internal emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and reported by Politico revealed that the top aides to EPA head Scott Pruitt, as well as Department of Defense and White House officials, sought to block the study's release, fearing a "public relations nightmare" that could follow.

"Scott Pruitt and the White House clearly will do anything to hide information from the public on any number of issues, including the poisoned drinking water of 100 million Americans," said Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at Environmental Working Group. "But lawmakers from both sides of the aisle understand full well how important clean drinking water is for their constituents and all Americans."