{"id":12017,"date":"2019-10-27T20:00:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-28T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/?p=12017"},"modified":"2022-08-15T14:43:36","modified_gmt":"2022-08-15T18:43:36","slug":"part-3-pfas-where-are-they-in-the-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/part-3-pfas-where-are-they-in-the-environment\/","title":{"rendered":"Part 3: PFAS: Where are They in the Environment?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"float: right; margin: 12px 6px 12px 12px;\">\n<!-- iframe plugin v.6.0 wordpress.org\/plugins\/iframe\/ -->\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mQ1nLYl1lVc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" 0=\"allowfullscreen\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>The birds all tell the same story &#8212; PFAS are a prevalent part of the food web. \u201cThey are saturated with them,\u201d says Anna Robuck, a University of Rhode Island (URI) doctoral student, as she discusses her three-pronged research project. \u201cIn every tissue, I have found these chemicals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s important, indicates Robuck, because humans can learn a lot about health risks by looking to other animals, like birds. They\u2019re \u201ca good proxy for human exposure,\u201d says Robuck, a trainee on STEEP &#8212; Sources, Transport, Exposure &#038; Effects of PFAS &#8212; to understand, analyze, and address just how harmful PFAS are to people and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Forever Chemicals: PFAS &#8211; Where Are They in the Environment?\u201d is the third of an eight-part STEEP video shorts series, \u201cSilent Chemicals, Loud Science,\u201d that explores problems posed by PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), explains how STEEP science is shedding light on the issues, and offers practical and positive steps for making our daily lives safer.<\/p>\n<p>In this part, Robuck, a National Oceanic &#038; Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Dr. Nancy Foster Scholar and a 2019 Switzer Fellow, describes her research effort that documents a decade-plus of detailed data, including which of the 4700 PFAS birds ingest, where the \u201cforever chemicals\u201d collect in their bodies, and how the substances move through the food web. Her specimens are bycatch, accidental deaths, and she gauges PFAS levels in their bodies, organs and tissues. Both PFAS and plastics register high.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a \u201ccanary in a coal mine\u201d situation, indicates Robuck, whose project is advised by URI oceanographer and STEEP lead researcher Rainer Lohmann. Many of the birds she sampled, she says, are species that generally spend their lives far, far out to sea &#8212; and yet their bodies still tell the story of heavy chemical consumption.<\/p>\n<p>And much more needs to be done, says Robuck, from government regulating more members of the PFAS chemical family, to industry being more transparent in PFAS dialogue. We need, essentially, to learn from the birds. \u201cTo think that these oceanic creatures are just so full of our chemicals,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s disheartening, but it\u2019s motivating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/media\">More Videos<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The birds all tell the same story &#8212; PFAS are a prevalent part of the food web. \u201cThey are saturated with them,\u201d says Anna Robuck, a University of Rhode Island (URI) doctoral student, as she discusses her three-pronged research project. \u201cIn every tissue, I have found these chemicals.\u201d That\u2019s important, indicates Robuck, because humans can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1002,"featured_media":12074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videos"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12017"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16788,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12017\/revisions\/16788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/steep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}