Vision
“I think many people are now aware of PFAS, or worried about it, or they want to know if it is in their waters, or their food. The complete purpose of what we try to do is develop something simple and costly to answer this question to them.”
Brian Berger, Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Virginia
Lights
Last fall, we wrote a story on how a group of researchers, along with the Mi’kmaq Nation in Maine, I worked to address pollution from PFAS – Individual and polyotorogen materials, a group of malicious chemical compounds that are sometimes known as “chemicals forever”. The materials that were increasing Associated with health issuesIt is a common problem for farmers and other landowners in Maine. The group witnessed some early success by using hemp to attract PFAs from the soil, on a plot of land that the tribe captured at a precedent of the Air Force. But many questions remain – for them and others who work on this issue – on how chemicals travel and accumulate, and what are the safe uses of polluted lands, and how to break these chemicals forever.
“I think everyone is struggling with this question, and trying to know that, what does it mean” forever “? What is the time that will continue in the soil? How will it be transmitted through the environment?” Brian Berger, one of the researchers, told me at the time. In addition to working with the Mi’Kmaq Nation hemp, his laboratory was looking for a set of methods that the planting kingdom might help us to track, and perhaps even get rid of PFAs pollution.
I was keen to follow up with Berger, a chemical engineer at the University of Virginia, about what he and his collaborators have learned so far to seek to answer these questions. At that time, the group has just received A four -year grant from the Environmental Protection Agency To continue to study the capabilities of hemp plants, as well as other endeavors, such as how to give farmers better test tools to see when their lands are contaminated. But during the past two months, as with many research projects, the group has faced relapses. It was a grant (which was already approved by Congress) It ended unexpectedly in MayBesides a list of other grants that focus on PFAS research – which has already been considered a beautiful non -partisan issue.
The group resumed, and The Environmental Protection Agency was granted in late JuneWith no other explanation.
“Because of this entire situation, I don’t feel completely trivial [the funding] As I did when we got the grant for the first time. Tell Min Mourning star. “But of course, we will go forward and do with all our actions, I am sure that it may be at an accelerated pace in some respects, just to do the largest possible tests.”
Berger also participated, this work is still in its early stages, but it has achieved some exciting results for the team.
One of the first questions in the battle to try to contain PFAS is whether the chemicals are present in a specific area – for example, farm or field – and if so, where it comes from. The escalating evidence that PFAS may be dangerous for human health has led to the prohibition of chemicals in many places. “The expectation was to see a decrease in the levels of PFAs accumulating soil and crops, but this did not happen,” said Berger. There are still unorganized sources that cause the spread of materials.
Giving better testing tools to track PFAs, something his laboratory has been working on for a long time. PFAS is currently tested using the mass ripper, which is a sophisticated piece of laboratory equipment. Berger said this gives high-quality data, but it is very expensive and takes a long time, said Berger-run about $ 400 per sample, with a transformation from a week to two weeks. “There is only a large deficiency in the infrastructure to take the tests on the necessary scale,” he said. Land tools need a simple test similar to the hydrogenic strip that can measure PFAS – and berger and his team have developed something soon: a VitalIn the form of a fluorescent microbe glowing when it is exposed to PFAS.
By cooperating with Mi’kmaq Nation, Berger and his collaborators tested the vital sensors on the water samples captured near the tribe’s land at the previous Air Force base – and in a report published in October, I found that the sensors could be discovered effectively High levels of chemicals, even in samples that contain other pollutants.
“So we have a direct test method that can be used, and this is a type of cheap fast detection point,” said Berger. The most advanced laboratory test will not be replaced, but it provides a choice for farmers who want to test, for example, through hundreds of acres.
To build on this work, Berger hopes to develop a way to include the same technology within a factory – which he calls “a new development on an old idea.” The old idea refers to the concept of incendiary plants: traditionally, a factory that is subject to some diseases or pests that farmers watch to see when these pests are present, then allocate control measures accordingly. “What if we go after that a step forward and engineer engineering to refer to a sign of your news that there is PFAs that exist – as you know, you may apply pesticide pesticide and then run.” As with the microbes tested by his team, this signal can be painted – which means that the plants will literally glow when PFAS. The warning mark like this means that farmers will not need to take an additional step of regular tests, even with simple microbes; They can only look at the guard factory to see when PFAs appear. “Then you get data in the actual time,” Berger said.
There is something else in which he and Maine were working to understand whether the food cultivated in the soil contaminated with PFAS or is fed by PFAS water is also contaminated, and therefore is not safe to eat. It seems that the clear answer is yes – but that depends on how the materials travel, where they accumulate, and whether some plants can be resistant to taking them.
“If there are PFAs resistant varieties, this may be another tool in the arsenal for farmers,” said Berger. Likewise, if farmers understood that PFAs were only gathering in part of the factory that was viable, they may still be able to grow certain crops safely while working simultaneously on treatment. Recently, the team had a breakthrough on that front.
“We conducted a study where we looked at it PFAS accumulation in potatoes“They are very proud of Mine’s state,” said Berger. This study, published by the Central Arooostook soil and water in Maine, found one of the grant partners, that PFAS did not accumulate in the righteous root of potatoes – chemicals were stored only in green paper parts.
“So you can grow potatoes even if there is PFAS in irrigation water, which they found,” said Berger. The team plans to continue testing other common crops such as broccoli, Brussels, and turnip, as well as the culturally important plants of the Mi’kmaq nation, such as Middleheads and ash trees.
While these encouraging results are only the first few months of the grant, one of the biggest questions for anyone working on PFAs is what, if there is anything, can be done already to get rid of chemicals. According to Berger and its collaborators, there is currently no cost -cost and effective way to destroy PFAS. “It is the question of one million dollars,” Berger said.
But his laboratory was testing a possible approach, as optical acting mainly mimiced in a specially designed microbe and the use of energy from that process to destroy PFAS that absorbed the microbe. “Therefore, a type of plant or other microorganisms has turned some of these energy or electrons into the destruction of PFAs,” said Berger. Primary experiences in the early stage have shown a promise, although there is still more research to be done before trying to approach realistic application. “It is not an ideal solution ready to go or anything, but these promising things we do are different from what is currently present,” said Burger. In fact, the destruction of PFAS into a contaminated plant or microbe means that the materials will not spread more – unlike other disposal methods, such as burning, which can release chemicals in the air.
“If it succeeds, it is the most environmentally benign method we can do things because it is almost all biological,” said Berger.
Claire Elise Thompson
More exposure
Shot
In this picture from 2019, dairy farms Farid Stone A small press conference was held at land in Arundel, MaineInviting public employees to take measures to avoid future PFAs pollution on farms. Close his farm after discovering PFAS levels in its cows milk, and He became the main defender of the work. Several farms in the state, such as Stone, were exposed to chemicals by applying sludge, or biological solids – treated wastewater product that has been used long ago as fertilizers.
