12/06/2021
By Dedra Daigle

Join us on Friday, Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. in HSS 342 or via Zoom

An Overview of Per-polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) and the PFAS-Free Firefighter Foam Study

Ani Bello will present on: Per-polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) present one of the most challenging environmental and public health issues of the 21st century. This presentation will include an overview of PFAS chemicals, their uses, environmental contamination, health effects, and the fast-changing landscape of federal and state regulations.

PFAS comprise a class of > 5,000 man-made chemicals that contain a fully or partially fluorinated carbon chain, widely produced in the 1950s. Due to their hydrophobic and lipophobic properties they are used as surfactants and polymers in numerous consumer products and industrial applications including textile coating, non-stick cookware, food packaging, furniture, cleaning products, paints, cosmetics, and firefighter foam to name a few. PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they persist in the environment and bioaccumulate. They are present almost everywhere: in drinking water, air, soil, landfills, biota, domestic animals, fish etc.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently identified 120,000 sites where people in the US could be exposed to PFAS. More than 98% of US adults have PFAS in their blood. PFAS exposures could increase the risk for developing cancer, high cholesterol and blood pressure, damaging the liver and immune system, birth defects and delated development among other adverse health outcomes. One major source of PFAS drinking water contamination is the use of legacy firefighter foam in fire training centers that is known as Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF). In this presentation we will introduce our recently funded Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant that aims at identifying incentives and barriers to implementing PFAS-free foams in fire training centers in the US. We hope this presentation will provoke ideas for research collaborations needed to help solve the PFAS contamination challenge.