EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio—From her backyard, Sandy Estell can see an incinerator—a white complex of buildings along the Ohio River—owned by a company with a Defense Department contract to burn more than 800,000 gallons of firefighting foam and related waste. Read more…
FISH A STRIPED bass out of North Carolina’s Cape Fear River, and it’s likely you’ve just hoisted up a swimming vessel for PFAS, a family of long-lasting chemicals found in many consumer products and fire-fighting foams. Of the fish tested for the chemical in a study recently published in the journal Environment International, all had elevated levels of PFAS. Compared to previous studies in 2015 and 2001, the North Carolina stripers have the highest rates of PFAS documented in North American fish. Read more…
A month ago, in a ballroom at a hotel conference center in a Madison suburb, social distancing wasn’t even in the vocabulary of most people. The coronavirus wasn’t yet a threat to Wisconsin. Hundreds of people packed into a convention to talk about, and hear about, a different threat to health–PFAS. Read more…
PFAS-REACH co-Principal Investigators Laurel Schaider and Phil Brown, along with Detlef Knappe, will give a webinar on March 25, 2020 from 1:00-2:00pm, titled “Working with Communities to Understand and Address PFAS Exposures”. The webinar is hosted by Partnerships for Environmental Public Health (PEPH), part of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). Registration is required. Read more…
A recent report from the Pentagon says it may take decades to remove toxic “forever chemicals” from the water supply near military bases following a surge in the number of sites with suspected contamination. The Defense Department now has 651 sites it suspects could be contaminated with PFAS, a class of chemicals used in a number of everyday products and in fire fighting foam used by the military. That’s a more than 50 percent jump from earlier tallies, an increase revealed in a report this past week from the Pentagon’s PFAS Task Force. Read more…
New studies by the Food and Drug Administration indicate that a common fluorinated chemical in food packaging and stain-resistant carpets and textiles is much more toxic than earlier studies by the chemical industry suggested. The findings indicate that the human health risks of this important short-chain PFAS have been significantly underestimated. And the studies show, once again, that the more we learn about short-chain PFAS, the more concerns emerge. Read more…
The new compostable to-go bowls at Sweetgreen’s San Francisco restaurant are missing something: They don’t contain PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, the so-called “forever chemicals” that are used in nonstick pans, flame retardants, and also in most of the molded fiber food packages that have become ubiquitous in healthy fast-casual chains, despite the sustainable appearance of those containers. Read more…
Potentially toxic chemicals called PFAS are found practically everywhere — your home included. But just how dangerous are these chemicals, and how might they affect your health? In a study published Tuesday in the journal International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, researchers examined the links between 26 PFAS and cancer, all were found to have at least one carcinogenic trait. To understand the links between these chemicals and our health, four experts weigh in on how abundant these chemicals really are and what — if anything — they may do to our bodies. Read more…
Toddlers and young children spend much of their day crawling, playing and climbing. For parents and childcare providers, that means constant mopping and dusting to keep floors and furniture clean and safe. But a new peer-reviewed study suggests high levels of dangerous contaminants known as PFAS are finding their way into childcare centers through the very products intended to keep children healthy. Read more…
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