Impact – ENVMAT

Eliminating PFAS from Used GAC Water Filters

Tom Huang — Tue, 30 Aug 2022 02:22:48 +0000

As part of a greater government push for scientific funding of PFAS research, many projects have captured my interest. I’m here to share one of them with you today. Recently, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $250K to Dr. Onur Apul, assistant professor of environmental engineering from the University of Maine, to study how to remove PFAS from used GAC filters.

Granular activated carbon (GAC) water filters are one of the most reliable ways to remove PFAS from drinking water sources. I’ve covered this topic in previous blog posts (here’s a recent example). Once GAC filters are spent, they are usually discarded or incinerated. Both disposal options for GAC are detrimental, because they cause environmental pollution. In previous blog posts, we have discussed how PFAS tend to be extremely resistant to breaking down in the environment. Once in a landfill, PFAS will eventually find their way into the environment, contributing to human exposure. Incinerating PFAS will cause it to leak into the air.

Dr. Apul and his team hope to identify factors that lead to PFAS breakdown, which will be useful in mitigating environmental PFAS release from used filters. Additionally, if successful, Dr. Apul’s research on PFAS breakdown could be expanded to other PFAS-laden objects that are commonly discarded in landfills or incinerated, such as food packaging and other consumer waste.

GAC filters are used in water treatment plants and household plumbing to reduce, if not completely mitigate, PFAS concentrations in water at the point of entry (source)

Mitigating the release of environmental PFAS is a crucial step that can immediately lessen the effect of PFAS exposure on human populations. Although research into PFAS may be time-consuming and not conclusive, actions taken to reduce environmental PFAS concentrations is a step in the right direction.

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PFAS in Food?

Tom Huang — Sun, 02 Jan 2022 23:48:34 +0000

PFAS has multiple pathways into the human body, including food, water, breathing, and (rarely) skin contact. Originating from the industrial manufacturing sector and our environment by proxy, PFASs have found their way into our bodies, mainly through food and water that have been contaminated in a variety of ways.

Diagram of PFAS pathways (Source: “A review of the pathways of human exposure to poly-and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and present understanding of
health effects” Sunderland, 2018)

PFAS pollution is directly related to our dietary intake. PFASs in the environment find their way into animals and plants, where they persist long enough to enter our bodies via consumption. PFASs can also find their way into our bodies from food packaging itself. Because PFASs are valued for their stain-resistant nature, they have seen extensive use in disposable food containers. According to FDA studies, using PFAS-contaminated soil, water, or biosolids to grow food can also cause food contamination. Currently, it is difficult to concretely connect PFAS contamination levels to adverse health effects (that is, it is difficult to ascertain what level of PFAS will cause what effects), so the FDA uses the most up-to-date scientific literature to estimate hazards.

Just like for water, the FDA has created a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) method for 16 types of PFAS in food (specifically bread, lettuce, milk, and fish), called C-010.01. The FDA has reported that this method can detect PFAS in food from 7 to 901 parts per trillion, which is very suitable for detection levels of all kinds in food. C-010.01 is apparently commercially available, but I could not find any laboratories that advertised PFAS testing for food when researching online.

Sources
https://www.fda.gov/food/chemical-contaminants-food/testing-food-pfas-and-assessing-dietary-exposure
https://supplychain.edf.org/resources/testing-for-pfas-in-food/

PFAS End of Year Recap – the current situation

Tom Huang — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 22:20:49 +0000

This year, PFAS has experienced a monumental rise in media coverage and public attention. Due to the PFAS-conscious policies of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) requiring PFAS testing, many towns found dangerous PFAS levels in their water sources. By May, around 20% of tested public wells contained above-regulation PFAS levels.

Communities scrambled to find ways to address their PFAS problem. Wayland, MA, resorted to handing out bottled water (with a cost of $20,000 per week) to its residents as a temporary water supply, while other towns like Wellesley fell back on their connections to the MWRA (Massachusetts Watershed Resource Association). Two major ways towns are considering dealing with this problem on the long-term side of things are either through connecting water pipes to the MWRA or installing their own expensive GAC (granular activated carbon) filters, both of which are highly expensive options that are expected to take a heavy toll on town budgets.

GAC filter (source)

The financial situation and problems of towns across Massachusetts bring to awareness a problem towards the establishment of federal regulations: not every town has the financial and logistical resources to comply with regulations. Solving the PFAS issue will require millions of dollars in financial aid to provide safe drinking water to the American people.

In the new year, I hope that more progress will be made in removing this toxic chemical from water supplies so that Americans will no longer face dreadful health effects. We need the government to intervene and put forth policies of regulation on a federal scale, so PFAS pollution can be greatly reduced and managed.

Happy New Year to All!

Sources
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/05/23/science/more-communities-are-finding-toxic-chemicals-their-drinking-water/

Hanscom AFB – A Potential Source of PFAS in Massachusetts?

Tom Huang — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 01:08:48 +0000

Hanscom Air Force Base is an Air Force base located in Bedford, Massachusetts, and is the headquarters for the Massachusetts National Guard. Hanscom AFB also hosts non-military activities, including firefighting training that may use aqueous film-forming foams (AFFFs), which have been mentioned earlier to contain PFAS [1].

Entrance to Hanscom AFB (source)

To summarize what has been presented in previous posts, Air Force bases are commonly a source of PFAS pollution, because they host firefighting training that uses AFFFs, a type of firefighting agent that ends up seeping into the ground and polluting groundwater. [2]

Because governments do not understand where PFAS comes from, especially in environments hundreds of miles away from chemical plants, it is important that we investigate where PFAS can potentially come from.

From personal investigation, it seems that Hanscom AFB could be a major source of PFAS pollution in Massachusetts, aside from chemical manufacturing factories. PFAS levels near military facilities can reach micrograms per liter, which are a thousand times above safe levels. Further worrying is the lack of evidence surrounding PFAS pollution in Hanscom AFB, especially when they may use AFFFs. Their 2020 Water Quality Report does not feature coverage of PFAS [3].

If PFAS pollution is not being investigated around Hanscom, even if they have phased out the use of AFFFs, then it poses a serious risk to the health of people in New England. It is a horrible oversight to ignore a major potential source of so-called “forever chemicals” that are increasingly being perceived as a threat to public health.

Sources
[1] https://www.hanscom.af.mil/News/Photos/igphoto/2002734894/
[2] https://www.mass.gov/info-details/per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas
[3] https://www.hanscom.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2676576/2020-annual-drinking-water-quality-report/