This Cheap and Sustainable Method May Be an Effective Weapon Against Forever Chemicals

Researchers at Texas A&M AgriLife have created a unique bioremediation technique for removing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, chemical contaminants that endanger human health and the sustainability of ecosystems.

The substance can potentially be used commercially to dispose of PFAS, sometimes referred to as "forever chemicals."

Eliminating Forever Chemicals

(Photo : Photo by Cate Gillon/Getty Images)

Susie Dai, Ph.D., associate professor in the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, and Joshua Yuan, Ph.D., chair, and professor in the Washington University in St. Louis Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, previously with the Texas A&M Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, collaborated on the research, which was published on July 28 in Nature Communications.

The project was financed by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences with assistance from Texas A&M AgriLife.

It's difficult to clean up contamination from PFAS, ScienceDaily noted.

Also Read: Fear of Cancer Rises Among Residents of Areas Polluted by Forever Chemicals in the US

Potential Harms

PFAS are utilized in several products, including nonstick cookware, textiles, electronics, food wrappers and packaging, dental floss, and firefighting foam.

According to Dai, PFAS are now widely dispersed in the environment due to manufacture or goods that include chemicals.

Nevertheless, U.S. Studies conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, demonstrate that sure of these chemicals have the potential to damage both people and wildlife at specific concentrations. Health consequences might include:

reproductive consequences, including lowered fertility or elevated high blood pressure in expectant mothers.
impacts on or delays a child's development, such as low birth weight, rapid puberty, alterations in the child's bones, or behavioral problems.
chance of developing certain malignancies, including prostate, kidney, and testicular cancer.
lower capacity of the immune system to combat diseases, including diminished response to vaccinations.
interference with the body's hormones in their normal state.
elevated cholesterol and/or an increased risk of obesity.

Dai stated that PFAS are harmful even at trace quantities and do not dissolve quickly in the environment.

"To avoid exposing humans to them and harming the ecology, they must be removed and eliminated," the scientist urged.

A Cheap and Sustainable Option

Because they are made up of a chain of carbon and fluorine atoms joined together-one of the strongest chemical bonds-PFAS are incredibly stable.

They can be concentrated and destroyed since they may exist in water at extremely low concentrations.

They can currently only be destroyed by a costly, multi-step procedure called burning. To remove the PFAS chemicals, commercial goods like active carbon are employed as a clean-up material.

After that, the material is transferred for burning.

A more affordable and sustainable option. With the help of microscopic fungi that consume the "forever chemicals," Dai and Yuan discovered a method to adsorb PFAS using a plant-derived substance.

According to Dai, the PFAS compounds might be concentrated using the plant material we created.

"The substance of the plant's cell wall acts as a framework to absorb the PFAS," she explained. The microbial fungus consumes the material, and the chemical that has been adsorbed, and as a result, the detoxification process is carried out by the fungus.

According to Dai, this is a sustainable treatment method with a strong potential to eliminate dangerous substances to preserve both the ecology and human health in a non-toxic manner.

EPA Action

The EPA is considering adding PFAS threshold levels to drinking water guidelines and has launched a statewide program to track the frequency and concentrations of PFAS in public water systems.

Manufacturers will need to monitor these chemicals and remove them when necessary; according to Dai, "if threshold levels become part of the drinking water standards, municipal water treatment plants must comply with EPA requirements."

Dai and Yuan's creative biomass remediation method could make it easier and more affordable to put these improvements into practice.

Beyond drinking water regulations, this technique is of importance.

Every element in the world that we inhabit interacts, according to Dai.

People are worried not just about the water but also about the nearby crops generated when the water is used to hydrate the food-producing animals.