[CPEO-MEF] PFAS: "Study Finds PFAS Contamination With No Known Source In Upper Cape [MA] Watersheds"

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

Study Finds PFAS Contamination With No Known Source In Upper Cape Watersheds

By RYAN SPENCER
Mashpee Enterprise (MA)
March 19, 2021


A new Harvard University study has found large quantities of previously undetectable PFAS - a family of manufactured chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they never fully degrade - in watersheds that supply drinking water on the Upper Cape.

Use of firefighting foams at Joint Base Cape Cod has long been a known source of the contaminants, which have been linked to low infant birth weights, suppression of the immune system, and cancer; but the new study found unidentified PFAS compounds that could not be traced back to the foam.

“Our expectation was, because firefighting foams and their use is such a big point source, that any PFAS that we measure we could attribute to that activity,” said Bridger J. Ruyle, an environmental scientist at Harvard and the lead author of the study. “What we find is that when we compare the approach that we know captures all of the PFAS in the firefighting foam, that only accounts for between 30 and 60 percent of the PFAS that we actually measured in those watersheds.”

…

For the entire article, see
https://www.capenews.net/mashpee/news/study-finds-pfas-contamination-with-no-known-source-in-upper-cape-watersheds/article_0d9406aa-f9ff-5699-9d8c-598ec42ed0af.html

—

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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