In the News
URI Welcomes Fabian Fischer, PhD, Assistant Professor and STEEP Researcher - Postdoctoral researcher Fabian Fischer is truly an interdisciplinary scientist, and he combines his expertise in environmental chemistry with biochemistry, computer modeling, and public health to study how PFAS are absorbed, secreted, and incorporated into the bodily systems of animals and humans ...Read more
Should we account for a broader range of PFAS in current fish consumption risk evaluations? - It is challenging to measure many of these other PFAS, limiting our ability to account for them in risk evaluations. To determine the concentration of a chemical in a seafood sample, we first need to extract that chemical from the sample ...Read more
Evaluating full environmental impacts of “low concern” polymeric PFAS - A recent op-ed from STEEP Director Rainer Lohmann, PhD, and Robert Letcher, National Wildlife Research Centre, Ontario, details the current state of research on fluorinated polymeric PFAS, their uses, chemical properties, and concerns surrounding their environmental and human health impacts ...Read more
Connecting with the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe - STEEP trainees and staff led a half day program at the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe‘s science summer camp for teens, Preserving Our Homeland, in Mashpee, MA. Trainees introduced campers to the science of PFAS and chemicals in our everyday lives and environment using hands-on activities ...Read more
Forget diamonds…PFAS are forever: STEEP researchers conclude PFAS may linger in groundwater for centuries - Model results demonstrated that precursors in remaining PFAS at AFFF-contaminated sites accounted for an average of 46% of the total PFAS in groundwater, but their contribution increases over time and these chemicals can persist in the environment for centuries ...Read more
Analysis finds marginalized communities disproportionately affected by PFAS - Environmental hazards are disproportionately placed near marginalized communities, and the factors underlying this issue are multifaceted and systemic. A recent study published by STEEP researchers in the Harvard University Sunderland Lab is the first to evaluate the effects of PFAS on communities in the context of environmental justice ...Read more
98%Americans with PFAS in blood
>2,200US PFAS-contaminated sites
>110 millionAmericans with contaminated drinking water supplies
50% decreaseof PFOS and PFOA in blood with water filtration