A June 2019 spill of 50,000 gallons of firefighting foam into Connecticut’s Farmington River contained PFAS – short for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances – and soon after plenty of questions about its potential health effects emerged.

“The spill was like a lightning rod, it caught the attention of the public and it’s a major problem,” explained Rainer Lohmann, a professor of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island.

Watch the NBC Connecticut investigative report featuring GSO professor Rainer Lohmann. 

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Meanwhile, preliminary results of a study of private wells on Cape Cod found that nearly half of the water samples had detectable levels of emerging contaminants known as PFAS. The study was done by the STEEP (Sources, Transport, Exposure and Effects of PFAS) Superfund Research Program at the University of Rhode Island in collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the state Department of Environmental Health and Silent Spring Institute. 

The unique physical chemistry of PFAS means the chemicals do not break down completely, or at all, University of Rhode Island professor Rainer Lohmann, who leads the STEEP Center, said during Wednesday’s presentation.

Reed the full story in the Cape Cod Times.