[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: "Feeding the Waste Cycle: How PFAS 'Disposal' Perpetuates Contamination"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Feeding the Waste Cycle: How PFAS 'Disposal' Perpetuates Contamination


By Environmental Working Group’s Science Investigations Team
AUGUST 18, 2020

Current methods of managing waste from toxic “forever chemicals” don’t work – and in fact, perpetuate the cycle of contamination, according to peer-reviewed research by scientists from the Environmental Working Group.

In a study recently published in the journal Chemosphere, EWG scientists concluded that burning, discarding and flushing materials containing the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS do not effectively contain or destroy them but rather end up just returning either the same chemicals or their byproducts back into the environment. In other words, PFAS “disposal” is really just another step in the contamination cycle.

PFAS are used in hundreds of products, such as food packaging, clothing, carpets and cookware, for their waterproofing or grease-proofing properties. They are called “forever chemicals” because they never break down in the environment, which means they could move through the waste cycle indefinitely. PFAS chemicals suppress the immune system and are associated with cancer, reproductive and developmental harms, and reduced effectiveness of vaccines.

…

For the entire blogpost, see
https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2020/08/feeding-waste-cycle-how-pfas-disposal-perpetuates-contamination

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
A project of the Pacific Studies Center
LSiegel@cpeo.org
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650-961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org





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