{"id":6358,"date":"2019-07-24T12:01:46","date_gmt":"2019-07-24T16:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/?p=6358"},"modified":"2019-07-29T15:26:54","modified_gmt":"2019-07-29T19:26:54","slug":"firefighting-fast-food-quantifying-pfas-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/firefighting-fast-food-quantifying-pfas-north-carolina\/","title":{"rendered":"From Firefighting to Fast Food: Quantifying PFAS in North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Patrick Faught, Summer Research Intern, Ferguson Lab, Analytical Chemistry Core<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This summer I am working in Dr. Lee Ferguson\u2019s lab to quantify the extent of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the state of North Carolina. PFASs have been extensively used in commercial products over the last 60 years, from cardboard boxes and non-stick pans to firefighting foam. PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment and stick around for a long time before they degrade. PFAS exposure has been linked to cancer, higher cholesterol, obesity, immune suppression, and endocrine disruption. While some of the longer-chained PFASs have been phased out in manufacturing, there are still an estimated 3000 PFAS compounds in use today<\/a>. Over concerns about these health effects, the North Carolina General Assembly set aside funding for Duke and 6 other universities<\/a> across the state to study PFAS. Dr. Ferguson is focusing on finding where and at what level PFAS exist in drinking water throughout the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Patrick, working at the Ferguson lab<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

To accomplish this, the lab is driving to every public\ndrinking water source in North Carolina\u2014from Raleigh to the 158-person town of\nMilton. Most sources have concentrations below the EPA\u2019s health advisory limit\n(70 parts per trillion of combined PFOS and PFOA), but some are at risk from\nnearby fluorochemical manufacturers and other industries that use PFAS, army\nbases which use the PFAS-laden firefighting foam, or from upstream wastewater\ntreatment plants that are not set up to treat PFAS contamination. The most\nnotable of these sources is the Chemours plant on the outskirts of\nFayetteville, N.C, where the PFAS \u201cGenX\u201d was discharged into the Cape Fear\nRiver and reached Wilmington\u2019s water supply. Additionally, some states have set\nregulatory standards for PFAS that are more stringent than EPA\u2019s non-binding\nguidance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paper mills have been documented as major sources of PFAS pollution. Many paper products designed to hold food repel oil and grease (e.g fast food wrappers, paper coffee cups, etc.). One of these plants lies along the Neuse River, and we plan on taking a boat through the area of discharge to assess PFAS levels and if the discharge could affect communities downstream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of quantifying the distribution of PFASs in the environment, our lab is also focusing on quantifying PFASs in commercial products. PFASs are so persistent in the environment that they can even make it through the brewing process. We\u2019re currently working to analyze the beer from multiple breweries throughout the state to assess whether beer drinkers are being exposed to concerning levels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Faught, Summer Research Intern, Ferguson Lab, Analytical Chemistry Core This summer I am working in Dr. Lee Ferguson\u2019s lab to quantify the extent of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1500,"featured_media":6363,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53,247,249,262,276,280,284],"class_list":{"0":"post-6358","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dusrc-blog","8":"tag-interns","9":"tag-ferguson","10":"tag-acc","11":"tag-pfas","12":"tag-interns2019","13":"tag-genx","14":"tag-neuse-river","15":"czr-hentry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1500"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6358"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6387,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6358\/revisions\/6387"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nicholas.duke.edu\/superfund\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}