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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/04/decontamination-of-landfill-waste-leads-to-increase-in-toxic-chemicals-says-study>
"Processes intended to decontaminate noxious liquid landfill waste before it
enters rivers and sewers have been found to increase the levels of some of the
worst toxic chemicals, a study has shown.
Landfills are well known to be a main source of PFAS forever chemicals – or
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – but the new study shows that the
treatment plants designed to clean up the liquid waste can instead boost the
levels of banned PFAS such as PFOA and PFOS, in some cases by as much as
1,335%.
PFAS are a family of about 15,000 human-made chemicals with nonstick properties
that are used in a wide range of consumer products and industrial processes.
They can take thousands of years to break down in the environment and the
handful that have been studied in detail have been found to be toxic, with PFOA
and PFOS linked to cancers and other diseases. PFAS pollution is widespread,
having been found in the remotest parts of the world, and it is thought every
US citizen has it in their blood.
Using data from an Environment Agency investigation into landfill liquid waste,
which is known as leachate, Dr David Megson from Manchester Metropolitan
University, who co-authored the study found “that instead of removing the
banned chemicals PFOS and PFOA our treatment plants are actually creating them
… likely being formed from the transformation of other PFAS within a chemical
soup”.
Megson is concerned that the understanding of what is going on in the UK at
landfill sites is poor and that monitoring “only looks at a few specific PFAS,
so we are only getting a tiny snapshot of what is actually out there and what
impact it may be having”.
The study looked at the leachate from 17 historical and operational landfills,
just a fraction of the total across the country. Pippa Neill from the Ends
Report, a co-author of the study, said that “with potentially hundreds of
landfill operators legally allowed to discharge their treated leachate into the
environment” there is an “urgent need” for more research so that PFAS can be
disposed of properly.
There is also “an urgent need to ban all PFAS globally, whether through the
existing Stockholm convention or a new global treaty on PFAS”, according to Dr
Sara Brosché, an adviser at the International Pollutants Elimination Network.
“PFOS and PFOA were known by the producers to be toxic from the beginning of
their use in consumer products, and they continue to poison the environment and
our bodies many years after they have been regulated. A multitude of PFAS are
now in use with little or no publicly disclosed information about where they
are used or their health impacts.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
