Read the full article by Jayme Deloss (Phys.org)
“PFAS, a family of thousands of human-made chemicals, are everywhere, and some of them are known to be harmful for our bodies and the environment. Even more frightening is how little we know about these pervasive pollutants found in everything from food packaging and cleaning products to firefighting foams.
A team of researchers including Colorado State University’s Jens Blotevogel is using one of the most powerful chemical analysis tools in the world to unravel the complexities of PFAS. They are working to characterize and catalog the thousands upon thousands of chemical compounds in the PFAS family, so future studies can find solutions to health and environmental impacts.
‘We’re not only attempting to resolve the chemical complexity of PFAS, we’re also opening doors for researchers who want to look at treatment, environmental fate and transport, and toxicology,’ said Blotevogel, a research assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. ‘This is giving people the strongest possible magnifying glass to unravel these processes.’
PFAS require a closer look because we don’t even know how many there are. A study by Blotevogel and his collaborators published in Environmental Science and Technology in January found evidence that suggests there may be many more than the several thousand already identified.”…