Working to say 'goodbye' to forever chemicals

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—They’re in food packaging and nonstick cooking equipment, carpet and leather treatments, water-resistant clothing and cosmetics; per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which cause a wide range of adverse health effects, are pervasive in the environment and extremely hard to break down. 

Western faculty and students are on the leading edge of innovation to root out and capture these “forever chemicals,” but it’s a daunting task. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates there are greater than 12,000 compounds that fit into the chemical group.

“The contamination is so pervasive and it’s so difficult to quantify the past, present and future adverse impacts these chemicals are having on our ecosystems and human health,” says Dr. Matt Reeves, Presidential Innovation Professor and associate professor of hydrogeology. “They’re present everywhere throughout the environment; PFAS have even been found in the Arctic and Antarctic due to atmospheric transport.”

What makes PFAS so dangerous are the minute concentrations necessary to affect human health and ecosystems, which amount to mere parts per trillion—about the same as a billionth of a gram per liter.

“As far as I’m aware, PFAS are the only contaminant group that studies show cause adverse health impacts at the parts per trillion level,” Reeves says.

He and his students have been developing novel sampling tools for measuring PFAS in the environment and also removing it—resources that could be especially useful in the wake of the EPA enacting a first-ever national PFAS drinking water standard in April. The landmark regulations set legally enforceable limits for five types of PFAS in water: PFOA, PFOS, PFNA, PFHxS and HFPO-DA, also known as GenX. 

The Biden administration estimates the standard will reduce PFAS exposure for 100 million Americans.

Michigan, which is home to more PFAS sites than any other state according to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, enacted its own PFAS standards under the Michigan Safe Drinking Water Act in 2020. But the new national standards are even stricter. Reeves says it’s a good start, but there’s much more to be done.

“The US EPA 1633 method only detects and measures the concentrations of 40 PFAS in water. We’re only scraping the surface in terms of the PFAS present in the environment.”

“We haven’t found a PFAS yet that doesn’t cause adverse health impacts. Some require higher concentrations than others to cause adverse health impacts. Some are more acutely toxic than others. But as far as I know, a single PFAS that is safe has yet to be identified. So if we’re going to really tackle the problem, it would be an outright ban on all PFAS compounds rather than trying to regulate one PFAS at a time,” he says.

Many manufacturing processes have become so reliant on PFAS that they require it in some form.

“I think PFAS do serve a role in terms of being useful compounds. Research could be used to identify the least toxic compounds and looking at that to try to phase out the more toxic compounds … until we can further identify or develop non-fluorinated compounds that could serve those purposes,” says Reeves.

Another challenge is breaking the toxic cycle of the transfer of PFAS from wastewater to landfills and back into the water system.

“A lot of the technologies that are currently being used can remove PFAS from wastewater streams or drinking water, like carbon filters, but you’re getting the PFAS on that and then putting it into the landfill. So, you’re just transferring it,” Reeves says. “Permanent solutions to PFAS contamination will require energy efficient and scalable destructive technologies,” which are still in the infancy stages of development.

Reeves has also been leading the charge on research related to PFAS cycling and chemical transformations of PFAS precursors within landfills and wastewater treatment plants. These precursors often go undetected by traditional surveillance methods until they chemically change into compounds that can be detected.

“Landfills serve a critical role in disposing of our solid waste, but they’re going to be a source of PFAS as time continues,” he says.

The prevalence and urgency of PFAS contamination and remediation efforts has translated into a substantial amount of increased work and staffing at environmental consulting companies. Reeves says the work his students are doing in his lab provides them with a competitive edge as they graduate.

“I’ve had several students complete PFAS-related theses. They’ve been in high demand coming out of college because a lot of people don’t understand PFAS, and these students are ahead of the curve.” ■