TalkingPFAS

Dr Paul Bertsch is the Science Director of Land and Water at CSIRO Ecosciences Precinct in Dutton Park, Brisbane, QLD. "Well the big turning point for the whole scientific community, and I know my colleague in CSIRO really took notice as well, would be 2001." Paul says the CSIRO has been mainly involved in looking at the fate and transport of PFAS contaminants in the environment. CSIRO are interesting in developing models to predict the transport. Developing models to predict how it's partitioned in soil, how it moves in groundwater, and then how it is taken up by eco receptors. He says PFAS is a significant global challenge. Paul said he "would really like to see a future where science would inform policy in a way that is transparent to not only to government but also to community."

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This is a fascinating talk with QLD researcher Leisa-Maree Toms from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane. It was recorded before the Covid-19 lockdown in Australia on the 17/2/2020. Leisa has been involved in human biomonitoring in Australia, looking at a range of contaminants in human blood including PFAS. Blood samples for the human biomonitoring program in Australia were first collected as part of The National Dioxin Program in Australia. Out of curiosity researchers used these samples, first collected in 2002, to have a look for PFAS. They have been monitoring for PFAS since that time. Leisa-Maree explains that the human biomonitoring program looks at background levels in the general population, with its main focus being on PFAS in blood samples collected from people in South East Queensland. However Leisa-Maree has been successful in obtaining funding from a NHMRC grant to broaden her their research to other states and territories of Australia.
Sample:: "KayleenDo you think that the continued monitoring of PFAS chemicals in Australia is an important thing to do, both for background levels, and also individuals?"
Leisa-Maree: "So certainly for background levels, since we have seen this decrease over time. If you want to be comparing occupationally exposed or residentially exposed concentrations you need an up to date background level. So for that reason, it is important to keep monitoring because we have seen a decrease, are we now going to plateau? Are we going to keep on decreasing? Are there secondary exposures that we might be exposed to? Will we see an increase? I think to stay up to date, it is really important to keep that monitoring going."

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Today's episode is a fascinating discussion with Professor Chris Higgins from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Colorado School of Mines U.S. Chris was visiting Australia in March 2020 to discuss work on a PFAS soil washing project being conducted in Adelaide SA. Chris was attending a project meeting to discuss this project at QHAES, Brisbane and this interview was conducted there on the 3/3/2020, just before everything started to get locked down because of Covid-19. I am very glad I got the chance to talk with Professor Chris Higgins about PFAS because his chemistry background plus his extensive knowledge of PFAS chemicals produced a very informative and interesting discussion. It is an episode that you do not want to miss if you want to understand the behaviour of this complex group of chemicals known as PFAS. Chris said " I have certainly described this as what I think is a major challenge for my generation of environmental engineers. We are going to be dealing with this for a long time to come."

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This is the final episode for Season 2 and 2019 - Taking a longer break (for other PFAS work) next one due approximately May/June 2020
In today’s episode I will be talking PFAS in the waste streams and their release back into the environment, and possible effects of some of these transmission pathways on agriculture and hence the food chain.
For the main discussion I will be talking with researcher, Christie Gallen, from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, discussing her research into PFASs in landfill leachate, WWTPs, biosolids and QLD floodwaters.
Christie has a background in Chemistry and Biology and has an Honours degree in Chemistry. She currently works as a research assistant in Brisbane.
Throughout today’s episode I will bring in some facts from Christie’s research papers and also put a link to her four papers in the show notes.I will also incorporate other relevant information about PFAS in landfills, biosolids, and WWTPs, and also highlight some brief overseas case study examples from Michigan, Maine, and even Alaska.Show Notes: Research Gallen et al
1. PFAS flood watersSpatio-temporal assessment of perfluorinated compounds in the Brisbane River system, Australia: Impact of a major flood event (2014)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X14001106
2. A mass estimate of perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) release from Australian wastewater treatment plants (2018)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0045653518310981
3. Australia-wide assessment of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in landfill leachates (2017)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389417300870?via%3Dihub
4. Occurrence and distribution of brominated flame retardants and perfluoroalkyl substances in Australian landfill leachate and biosolids (2016)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389416302539?via%3Dihub
Bloomberg Environment Parts Per Billion Podcast - Maine Dairy Farmer Fred Stone PFAS & Biosolidshttps://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/the-farmer-who-got-punished-for-reporting-pollution-podcast

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Helena Hinrichsen is an Environmental Engineer from EnvyTech Solutions AB, Sweden was a presenter at the 2019 Clean Up Conference held in Adelaide between 8-12 September. I caught up with her at the conference for a short interview, where we discuss some of the challenges with remediation of PFAS. Helena believes there is not one solution for a PFAS problem, and that collaboration is key to solving the PFAS problem. She says the main three treatments for PFAS are thermal, chemistry and mechanical and Helena says "by combining them we can get a better solution than just using one of them." Helena is involved in, what she believes is the first project in the world, where they are using two combined methods for stabilisation both for groundwater and unsaturated soil, which is the soil above the groundwater. Today's talk is a bit technical but it was great to hear about some methods for treating PFAS. Helena also says, "I think what we all need to know is that we actually are moving forward. It is not always bad things. Yeah it is bad, it is really bad, but good things are happening. Man created it and we are really good at creating things so solutions are coming along so I see there is hope."
Show Note Links:
Guest speaker Helena Hinrichsen, Project Manager, EnvyTech Solutions AB Sweden http://envytech.se/om-envytech/
"Helena has long experience in planning and project management of remediation works and possesses top-level expertise in soil and groundwater treatment techniques. Helena also has long experience of working with overall commitments on remediation projects, which includes all information from the notification and public contacts to planning, project management, monitoring and final reporting."
CRC Care has published a link from the 2019 Clean Up Conference where you can download presentations from a range of sessions, including many PFAS sessions. This is where you can see the full presentation by Ian Cousins, Stockholm University, Sweden (mentioned briefly in today's episode) - you will see where he got the number of 4700 PFAS chemicals as well.http://adelaide2019.cleanupconference.com/presentations/
IPEN has some great reports on PFAS - here is their latest report referred to briefly in today's episodehttps://ipen.org/news/new-report-perfluorohexane-sulfonate-pfhxs%E2%80%94-socio-economic-impact-exposure-and-precautionary

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Today's discussion is with Professor Ravi Naidu the founder of CRC Care. This interview was recorded at the CRC Care 2019 Clean Up Conference held in Adelaide, Australia between 8-12 September. There were 700 delegates representing 35 countries, with many world leaders in the field of remediation. In this episode Professor Naidu talks about the important work that CRC Care do in bringing industry, regulators, polluters, and academic professionals together. He says "CRC Care is a Co-operative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment. Our job is to develop innovative technologies and solutions for the prevention, assessment and remediation of contaminated land." He said there are over 160,000 contaminated sites in Australia (*NB there are not all PFAS sites). He said if PFAS sites were included there would be more than 160,000 contaminated sites in Australia mainly in urban areas. In the last 20 years, he says Australia has only managed to remediate about 5% of these sites. Professor Naidu believes PFAS is a far more challenging contaminant than arsenic or lead to come up with solutions. Professor Naidu also discusses CRC Care's funding challenges as their Commonwealth Government funding is due to expire 30 June 2020 and he explains what that would mean in relation to contaminated sites in Australia, if CRC Care failed to continue.

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Jennifer Spencer had a dream of training race horses on her own property. In 2012, she bought a property in Oakey, QLD to fulfil that dream where she wouldn't have water worries. But shortly after buying that property she discovered that the abundant bore was contaminated with PFAS chemicals, from AFFF fire fighting foam used by Defence, at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre since the 1970's. Jennifer along with many hundreds of residents in Australia have been fighting to get compensation. The Australian Government has still not responded to the recommendations from the 2018 PFAS Inquiry. The Australian Government has also just stopped the free PFAS blood tests for Oakey, Katherine and Williamtown and the free mental health counselling via Support Now, as at 30 June, 2019.

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Today's episode is the journey of two QLD stud producers, Dianne Priddle and David Jefferis, who live in the Department of Defence's PFAS management area in Oakey. Dianne also has MS and fears that the stress will advance her condition. They are proud stud producers, and fear for their future because of PFAS contamination that is migrating towards them from the Army Aviation Centre Oakey. This is their story and it is also a pre-election special as they talk about what they want and need the Government to do for them. Australia is one week away from a Federal election. The commencement of the joint class action trial for Oakey Williamtown and Katherine residents has been put off - it is no longer the 12/8/2019 - no new date has been set. Residents all around Australia are disappointed by the news. The Australian Liberal Government is yet to respond to the recommendations of the Committee from the 2018 PFAS Inquiry.

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This episode is an interview with Professor Cathy Banwell. We discuss the Focus Group Study Report that was released by ANU Canberra on 19 March, 2019. This report is one component of the PFAS Health Study which is being conducted by ANU Canberra. Professor Banwell is a Co-Investigator on the PFAS Health Study and was the Lead of the Focus Groups. Focus groups were conducted in three communities, Katherine (NT) Williamtown (NSW) and Oakey (QLD). These three communities are the only communities the ANU has been commissioned to work in, even though there are many sites in Australia, including 27 Defence bases which have been or are currently being investigated for PFAS. Additional focus groups were held in three Aboriginal communities on the outskirts of Katherine and also separate focus groups were held in Williamtown, Oakey and Katherine for Defence personnel, contractors and their families. This report provides more detail of the many social, physical, financial, mental and emotional effects PFAS is having on communities. The Australian Government now has recommendations from two PFAS Inquiries conducted in Australia in 2015 & 2018 and now the ANU Focus Group Study Report to inform their decision making and hopefully help them respond to the many communities around Australia who are struggling with the many effects of PFAS contamination on and around their properties. The Australian Government is still due to respond to the recent 2018 PFAS Inquiry.
https://rsph.anu.edu.au/files/FINAL%20PFAS%20Health%20Study%20Focus%20Groups%20Report%20February%202019_3.pdf

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Today’s episode is a conversation with Assistant Professor Andres Cardenas from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr Cardenas has been the lead author of two PFAS studies but the focus of today’s conversation is his research published in 2018.
The objective of the study was to determine the extent to which PFASs are associated with increases in weight and body size and evaluate whether a lifestyle intervention modifies this association.
“We found that PFASs measured in blood are associated with weight gain. However we see that exercise and diet, so this is a lifestyle intervention of exercise and diet was able to attenuate this weight gain, that is associated with this PFAS exposure.”
The importance of Dr Cardenas’s research is because PFASs are chemicals that are suspected endocrine disruptors.
Show Notes: Episode 11
1. Research Paper Cardenas et al Published 2/10/2017 in Environmental Health Perspectives: https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1612“Plasma Concentrations of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances at Baseline and Associations with Glycemic Indicators and Diabetes Incidence among High-Risk Adults in the Diabetes Prevention Program Trial.”
2. Research Paper Cardenas et al Published August 31, 2018 in JAMA Network Open: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.1493“Association of Perfluoroalkyl Substances with Adiposity.”
3. Research Paper (Dr Cardenas referred to in the show by colleagues whofound similar PFAS & weight gain associations) https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002502

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