The Baltic Leadership Programme on PFAS, a conference held in January 2020 in Warsaw, Poland, was designed for key stakeholders, public professionals and experts working with environmental protection, hazardous chemicals and water contamination. The conference highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts to spread knowledge and cooperate to phase out PFAS in the Baltic Sea.

Dr. Alan Vajda, professor at the University of Colorado – Denver and a key researcher in STEEP’s Project 1, was invited to present his research on ecotoxicological impacts of widespread PFAS contamination in wildlife. Using a unique mobile fish lab, Dr. Vajda has been able to study the effects of environmental contaminants on a variety of fish and invertebrate species across the United States, and the impacts on gene transcription in the liver and gonads, gut microbiome response, sperm performance, and liver lipids.  The aim of his research is to establish predictive linkages between PFAS exposure and fish health effects in support of ecological monitoring and site remediation.