[flagged]
[deleted]
Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
11–20 of 50 posts
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#12[deleted]
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#13I remember being the "general public" unaware of PFAS. Anything "non-stick" contains it, you realise that it's everywhere in modern society. Blissful ignorance was nice while it lasted.
It was intentional ignorance. 3M and DuPont knew these chemicals were in human blood samples for decades.
"How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals"
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/27/3m-forever-che...
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#14I spent 7 years getting rid of the PFOA-derived chemical across all our product lines. they are super useful, but they cross the placental barrier and have a half-life of 6.5 years or so. They were replaced by not-PFOA chemicals that had similar chemical properties so not sure that it did a whole lot of good in the long run.
What chemicals are these replacements, if you can divulge that?
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#15What I'd worry about is not PFAs, but excreted drugs. Some drugs (or their byproducts) are persistent, and have been deliberately selected to have biological effects. I take metformin. This drug is mostly excreted in feces. The dry mass of feces might be 1% metformin for someone taking typical doses. The drug does break down in the environment, but only slowly.
This is already a known issue and waste water plans have treatments to address some of the impacts. I found an article from 2012 where they specifically talk about cost of addressing the contraceptive pill's impact on British water systems.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jun/02/water-sy...
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#16What I'd worry about is not PFAs, but excreted drugs. Some drugs (or their byproducts) are persistent, and have been deliberately selected to have biological effects. I take metformin. This drug is mostly excreted in feces. The dry mass of feces might be 1% metformin for someone taking typical doses. The drug does break down in the environment, but only slowly.
This is already a known issue and waste water plans have treatments to address some of the impacts. I found an article from 2012 where they specifically talk about cost of addressing the contraceptive pill's impact on British water systems. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/jun/02/water-sy...
But how could such treatments work? The drugs are a wide range of organic chemicals mixed in with the literal crap of sludge, which is also a wide range of organic chemicals. Just how is this supposed to separate out or degrade the drug residues without also destroying the sludge?
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#17What I'd worry about is not PFAs, but excreted drugs. Some drugs (or their byproducts) are persistent, and have been deliberately selected to have biological effects. I take metformin. This drug is mostly excreted in feces. The dry mass of feces might be 1% metformin for someone taking typical doses. The drug does break down in the environment, but only slowly.
PFAS have exceptional properties that make them difficult to degrade, especially when it has been ingested. As a result, exposure to them will lead to bioaccumulation. Wastewater is treated to remove things like metformin, and anything that eludes that can be metabolized normally.
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#18I spent 7 years getting rid of the PFOA-derived chemical across all our product lines. they are super useful, but they cross the placental barrier and have a half-life of 6.5 years or so. They were replaced by not-PFOA chemicals that had similar chemical properties so not sure that it did a whole lot of good in the long run.
What chemicals are these replacements, if you can divulge that?
The manufacturers would not disclose it to us beyond it was "not-PFOA", but they did agree to disclose it to the FDA upon request.
The application requires a small, inert molecule, which PFOA was, in spades. They simply made a slightly different small molecule that was almost as inert.
Small is a problem because it becomes mobile. Inert is a problem because it doesn't easily break down. Now, instead of having one "forever chemical" we have a host of them in the environment.
Not sure what the right answer is and whether we are actually better off as a result of all that work.
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
What chemicals are these replacements, if you can divulge that?
The manufacturers would not disclose it to us beyond it was "not-PFOA", but they did agree to disclose it to the FDA upon request. The application requires a small, inert molecule, which PFOA was, in spades. They simply made a slightly different small molecule that was almost as inert. Small is a problem because it becomes mobile. Inert is a problem because it doesn't easily break down. Now, instead of having one "fo…
This is very common, one chemical gets banned so they make a more convoluted version
Re: Something's Poisoning America's Farms. Scientists Fear 'Forever' Chemicals
#20What I'd worry about is not PFAs, but excreted drugs. Some drugs (or their byproducts) are persistent, and have been deliberately selected to have biological effects. I take metformin. This drug is mostly excreted in feces. The dry mass of feces might be 1% metformin for someone taking typical doses. The drug does break down in the environment, but only slowly.
Artificial estrogen comes to mind as well