August 19, 2022
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PFAS are used in makeup and pharmaceuticals for their waterrepellent properties.
Scientists have first figured out how to destroy “eternal (or permanent) chemicals” with an inexpensive method, one says new research published in Science.
Scientists have linked exposure to the substances in certain amounts to serious health risks, including cancer and birth defects.
Chemicals known as PFAs (perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl compounds) are used in hundreds of everyday items such as food packaging, nonstick cookware, raincoats, adhesives, paper, paint and makeup. There are about 4,500 of these fluorinebased compounds.
Their resistance to water, grease and dirt makes them very useful. However, it is these characteristics that make them so difficult to destroy.
They have been identified in low concentrations in rainwater worldwide but when they enter water or soil in high concentrations, they can become a serious problem.
Research continues to determine how different levels of exposure can lead to different health effects.
“There is an association between exposure and adverse outcomes in all major organ systems in the human body,” Elsie Sunderland, a professor of environmental chemistry at Harvard University in the US, told BBC News.
Existing methods of destroying PFAs, such as incineration, have not been very successful they require extremely high temperatures, which is expensive.
The new research by scientists at Northwestern University in the US claims they have done the “seemingly impossible” and destroyed PFAs using low temperatures and cheap products.
According to Professor Sunderland, who is not part of the research team, this can be very useful in helping communities suffering from highlevel contamination.
The reason PFAs have historically been so difficult to destroy is because they contain many carbon and fluorine bonds—the strongest bonds in organic chemistry.
But it is these bonds that make it possible to repel liquids and make these substances usable for the pharmaceutical and food industries.
The research team, led by Brittany Trang, has identified a new mechanism for breaking down PFAs using a common chemical called sodium hydroxide, which is used in household products like soap and painkillers.
They attacked a group of weaker oxygen atoms that sit at the end of the long tail of carbonfluorine bonds.
The process “decapitated the headtotail group” and the PFAs began to fall apart, leaving only harmless products.
Trang says the results are “exciting due to the simplicity albeit still unrecognized of our solution.”
“It could be a breakthrough if it (an operation) is cheap,” Camilla AlexanderWhite, head of chemical policy and Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow, told BBC News.
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PFAS are found in hundreds of household items
The team of scientists hopes that with further research, PFAs can be filtered out of drinking water and this new method can be used to destroy pollutants.
However, treating high levels of PFA is only part of the solution.
If left in production, PFAs can continue to accumulate in small amounts in fish and other wildlife because they cannot be broken down naturally very easily. The doctor. AlexanderWhite advocates that regulators and manufacturers refrain from using PFAs.
The new method was applied to the 10 most popular PFA types, but the US Environmental Protection Agency has identified more than 12,000.
William Dichtel, coauthor and professor of chemistry at Northwestern, remains hopeful: “There are other classes that don’t have the same Achilles’ heel, but each will have its own weakness.”
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