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by Kayla Williams, Communications Coordinator/Diversity Equity & Inclusion Lead
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Eliminating the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in products is a major focus in company policy and market campaigns. Helping companies transition to safer PFAS-free alternatives is now made easier by the collection of resources created by Charting a Path to PFAS Solutions in Food Packaging & Service Ware.
Viewers can:
- Access factsheets identifying suppliers with PFAS-free coatings or materials;
- Download purchasing recommendations for sustainable food service ware; and
- Hear presenters discuss the range of PFAS testing methods in a recent webinar, held on September 1, 2020.
The ‘Charting the Path’ workgroup is an informal, multi-stakeholder group that provides a platform for sharing information and having discussions across manufacturers, retailers, health care organizations, governments, and NGOs on solutions to PFAS in food service ware and packaging. The conveners and founders of Charting a Path are Cancer Free Economy Network, Center for Environmental Health, Clean Production Action, and San Francisco Department of Environment. Learn more about the group and how to join here. We welcome your input!
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by Tom Bruton, Senior Scientist
After two years of research and writing, 16 scientists--including four from GSPI--published an important peer-reviewed paper on reducing harm from PFAS by managing these thousands of substances as one single class. Our paper makes the case that the extreme persistence and potential toxicity of PFAS, including the large polymeric molecules, render traditional one-chemical-at-a-time management inadequate and even dangerous.
During a virtual press conference about our paper, Senator Blumenthal from Connecticut, Representative Kildee from Michigan, Linda Birnbaum, Detlef Knappe, Tom Bruton, and Arlene Blum spoke to 105 journalists and others about the class concept and preventing further harm from PFAS. Please check out the recording and pass it on. Also see our July 15 Facebook Live conversation with Representative Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania and Marta Venier.
On the same day our "PFAS as a class" paper was released, Senator Blumenthal and others introduced bipartisan bicameral legislation to reduce PFAS exposure among military families by stopping Department of Defense purchasing of a range of products containing PFAS. Moving military purchasing away from PFAS will reduce the manufacture and global accumulation of these "forever chemicals."
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by Anthony M. Spaniola, Founding Member
Need Our Water (NOW) is a PFAS community group in Oscoda, Michigan. Oscoda is the home of the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base, which is the first reported PFAS contamination site in Michigan and the first reported PFAS contamination site operated by the U.S. military anywhere in the world. NOW is credited by Congressman Dan Kildee as the inspiration for the bipartisan Congressional PFAS Task Force, which he cofounded after a brainstorming session with NOW in Oscoda. Working closely with NOW, Congressman Kildee brought the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force to Oscoda in August of 2020 and obtained a preliminary commitment for interim groundwater clean-up measures at a high-use public recreation area, after years of refusals and delays by the Air Force.
While much more work is needed, this is a major victory for NOW and the Oscoda community. This victory comes in the wake of the preview screening earlier this year by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Sara Ganim of her film documentary, “No Defense: The U.S. Military’s War on Water,” which highlights PFAS abuses by the Pentagon at Oscoda and other military base communities around the country. It features certain members of NOW and shares gripping personal stories from veterans, their families and other impacted community members. The film's Ann Arbor, Michigan preview drew an estimated 800 people, including members of Congress, NGO's from the Great Lakes region, and PFAS community allies from as far away as Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania. Please go here to view the film's trailer and check out updates and film clips.
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by Wendy Lucht, Coordinator
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The URI STEEP Superfund Research Program held its third annual External Advisory Committee meeting on September 1 and 2, 2020. The primary goal of the EAC is to provide guidance, feedback, and resources to STEEP with a focus on the scientific merit of the research, the relevance on importance of the individual components to the goals of the Center; the integration of research across disciplines; the effectiveness of research translation activities in linking projects and stakeholders; and the appropriateness of community engagement and training activities. STEEP trainees and PI's highlighted, submitted and recently published research:
Legacy and Novel Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Juvenile Seabirds from the US Atlantic Coast by Anna R. Robuck, Mark G. Cantwell, James McCord, Lindsay Addison, Marisa Pfohl, Mark J. Strynar, Richard McKinney, David R. Katz, David N. Wiley and Rainer Lohmann.
Transport of Legacy Perfluoroalkyl Substances and the Replacement Compound HFPO-DA through the Atlantic Gateway to the Arctic Ocean Is the Arctic a Sink or a Source? by Hanna Joerss*, Zhiyong Xie, Charlotte C. Wagner, Wilken-Jon von Appen, Elsie M. Sunderland, and Ralf Ebinghaus.
Joint and independent neurotoxic effects of early life exposures to a chemical mixture: A multi-pollutant approach combining ensemble learning and G-computation by Oulhote, Youssef; Coull, Brent; Bind, Marie-Abeled; Debes, Frodie; Nielsen, Flemming; Tamayo, Ibond; Weihe, Pale; Grandjean, Philippe.
Dominant Entropic Binding of Perfluoroalkyl Substances (PFASs) to Albumin Protein Revealed by 19F NMR by Michael Fedorenko, Jessica Alesio, Anatoliy Fedorenko, Angela Slitt, Geoffrey D. Bothun
Learn more about our progress in 2020 by reviewing our Annual Report Booklet
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