
The state legislature is considering a pair of bills that would limit the use of certain chemicals in firefighting foam, and to help communities whose drinking water has been contaminated.
A new study looked at the current impact of those chemicals. Katie Anastas reports.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have been found in food packaging, cookware, waterproof fabrics and stain repellents. They’re known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment. PFAS have been linked to cancer, immune system problems, low infant birth weights and increased cholesterol.
In the first study of its kind since 2004, researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and Indiana University studied PFAS in breast milk. Samples came from 50 first-time mothers in and around Seattle. Every sample had at least one type of PFAS. More than half of the samples had 12 types.
Ten Alaskan communities have an unsafe level of PFAS in their drinking water. They’ve been found in 30 other communities’ water, too.
“And it’s likely that the number of communities with contaminated water will grow as more sampling is conducted,” said Nick Riordan, a member of the Alaska Collaborative on Health in the Environment.
Riordan moderated a webinar about the new study on Wednesday. He said PFAS are especially important to study in Alaska because of their impacts on the natural environment.
“Concern grows even more as it becomes increasingly clear that PFAS are not only contaminating groundwater and surface waters, but also the fish, the wild game,” he said. “There’s even been closures of several lakes in Alaska to fishing as a result of PFAS contamination.”
PFAS can get into food through packaging, soil, or water.
Sheela Sathyanarayana, one of the authors of the study, is a pediatric environmental health specialist and the medical director for the newborn nursery at the UW Medical Center. She said one of the best ways to avoid consuming PFAS is by varying your diet and food sources.
In Alaska, one way to do that is changing up your fishing spot.
“Within Alaska, there have been these chemicals found in fish. And so if you consume fish from that lake every single day or multiple times a week, you’re likely to have higher exposures to those chemicals.”
Another big source is firefighting foam. Airports and military facilities that use firefighting foam can spread PFAS to groundwater, putting local communities at risk for health impacts. Another author on the study, Erika Schreder, said most foams with PFAS are meant to put out oil fires.
“So the primary uses have been at places like airports and refineries, and that’s resulted in contamination of drinking water,” Schreder said.
Petersburg does not have any drinking water wells near its airport, so it was not part of a state screening of airports for potential PFAS impacts. Bill O’Connell, manager of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s Contaminated Sites program, said in an email that firefighting foam has been used at the airport. He said the Department of Transportation will study the site in the future, but that it hasn’t been scheduled yet.
Sathyanarayana said that, on an individual level, avoiding processed foods is one of the best ways to reduce consumption of PFAS.
“Really, there is no zero exposure,” she said. “In our industrialized societies, we just cannot get to zero. We’re all exposed to some amount of chemicals. So really what we want to try to do is to reduce our overall environmental exposures.”
On the state level, Senator Jesse Kiehl and Representative Sara Hannan have introduced bills to phase out the use of PFAS in firefighting foam, establish drinking water standards, and provide testing and clean water for communities affected by PFAS contamination.