Produce in home gardens near PFAS plant in US contain dangerous levels of chemicals | North Carolina
Production of products grown in home gardens around the North Carolina PFAN factory contains dangerous levels of chemicals, New search It has been found, providing more evidence that food is a possible exposure to vehicles, especially when planting it near the pollutants.
The authors of the study say that the results indicate a lot of pollution resulting from air emissions, which are increasingly suggesting that they are a source of reduced its estimation Pfas pollution.
The paper, which was reviewed by PFAS, found all the 53 samples that were reviewed and that grew in five gardens from 2013-2019, several miles from the factory in Vitville, North Carolina stateMixed by chemical chemistry.
“In some societies, the methods of exposure, unlike drinking water, can be important and may be ignored,” said Deitlev Nab, a researcher and co -author of North Carolina State University.
In a statement, Chemours noticed that the study covered a small geographical area, and the product was planted before the company installed some air pollution controls.
PFAS is a category of about 16,000 vehicles used to make water, stain and heat -resistant products. They are called “chemicals forever” because they do not collapse normally and have been found in humans. Chemicals are associated with cancer, birth defects, liver diseases, thyroid diseases, sperm number and a set of other serious health problems.
Although organizational and most scientific audit focused on human exposure to chemicals in water, food is increasingly a major way to swallow.
The Food and Drug Administration monitors PFAS in the annual tests that rarely find chemicals. But independent researchers have criticize The agency’s methodology, which they claim is designed to make it appear as if food is less contaminated with PFAS than it might be.
Critics said that the agency has set the minimum level of unreasonable detection level, so even when there are dangerous levels of PFAs in food, the Food and Drug Administration can say it has not discovered anything. In 2018 the agency I found pfas In 108 pieces of products grew near the Chemours factory in North Carolina, but later It changed its methodology. Then I published the “revised” Data This has shown only 36 polluted products, and since then has reduced the occupation of PFAs risk in food.
Nab said that the new research could not conduct conclusions about the wider food supply, only those who live near the pollutants.
The levels of some chemicals that the study found in the product represents a healthy threat. For example, a child who eats only 10 berries from one of the tested gardens consumes Genx, a common PFAS compound that is produced at the near Chemours factory, which is equivalent to drinking a liter of water with levels of chemical above the federal limit.
Adults will have about four times the blue berries to reach the same levels of pollution, but the problem is likely to be much worse because people often eat more meals than fruits and vegetables more than this estimate.
Moreover, there are no health risk data for vehicles at the highest levels.
“We are not able to capture the real risks … and this indicates an urgent need – we need this toxic data,” Nab said.
Fruits and vegetables rich in water that are grown on plants-such as strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, berries and berries-have shown higher levels of products rich in starch, such as corn, because PFAs are attracted to water. The fruits of trees, including those rich in water, showed general levels that chemicals should travel to the fruit.
The parks in the study were largely watered with rain water instead of groundwater, and levels were generally found in the direction of the wind, indicating that air pollution is responsible.
When companies send pfas waste to the air, in the end it rains or lands on the ground, perhaps hundreds of miles away, but in higher folders around the source of pollution. Since the chemicals may take thousands of years until they collapse, they accumulate in the soil, then food crops can be occupied.
The levels have generally decreased, which the Knappe theory has been shown in chemistry to install pollution controls in 2013. In its statement, Chemours noticed that in 2020, in 2020 she made more powerful air emissions compositions that reduced more than 99 % of their emissions, but after that Study production has grown.
It is still, Test In the year 2023 by Knappe assigned by the Guardian, it indicates that the levels of PFAs in the air outside the factory are still higher than the regulators and chemistry claiming.