r/PFAS

YaleNews: "Removing ‘forever chemicals’ from farmlands—at a fraction of the cost."

A Yale-led research team has proposed a less expensive—and more environmentally friendly method—for removing certain “forever chemicals” from millions of acres of farmland in the US + around the world.

"The new process, which is based on data from agricultural sites in Maine, has the potential to address two connected environmental challenges: remediating per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that have contaminated agricultural land for decades and scaling up the use of enhanced weathering to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere." 

PFAS are a class of toxic, man-made chemicals that have been used for decades in hundreds of products, from dental floss [yuck] + lipstick [yuck again] to frying pans + pizza boxes [another reason home-made pizza is better]. PFAS are ubiquitous in the United States, having made their way into groundwater and soil, and then eventually croplands.

Just as important, the new approach allows previously contaminated cropland to once again be used for an agricultural purpose—unlike current remediation methods. Noah Planavsky, a professor of Earth and planetary science in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the son and brother of farmers, is also a faculty member of the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture and principal investigator for a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences which describes the new method.

“Though this study is U.S.-focused, based on the available data, PFAS are a challenge globally,” said Jake Thompson, an associate researcher in the Planavsky Lab and first author of the study. 

"There has been a lot of work on enhanced weathering (EW), a promising natural solution for durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) that builds on the longstanding practice of applying crushed rock (such as limestone [also serpentinite]) to agricultural lands to mitigate soil acidification."

EW uses the same method to accelerate the Earth’s natural geologic carbon cycle by spreading finely ground alkaline material (e.g. silicate rock such as basalt [+ serpentinite]) over agricultural fields.

Two birds with two stones, as it were.

Campus Files recently released an episode about the sexual assault crisis at Baylor University. I thought people here might be interested in the story: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/campus-files-scandals-secrets-crimes-at-american-universities/id1460320573?i=1000776874133

I bought a Sciex 4500 LCMSMS from Jay Ambrosio & Dae Cho of CMION in San Leandro, CA. I wired them in full because I had just purchased a Sciex 5500+ from them 2 months prior with no issues. A week and a half after they accepted my wire, and one day before installation was scheduled, Jay told my company that he was canceling the transaction because I wasn't using CMION for the installation & service contract. I had already hired my favorite engineer months prior and had prepaid him. Jay threw a tantrum, saying he won't allow other service engineers to work in 'HIS TERRITORY' - the Bay Area. Delusional! They have not refunded me after almost a month and continue to keep the instrument that is legally owned by my company. They are trying to sell the 4500 I bought on eBay.

I bought a Viomi Vortex 8 Pro, and after it arrived I checked the model number against Viomi's V8 Pro certificate page and the performance information for the filter. Seeing the model-specific report reference and the PFAS/PFOA/PFOS testing language line up was reassuring. I still wanted to understand which standard and contaminant each statement covered instead of treating every standards reference as interchangeable.

The way I am checking it is fairly unglamorous: copy the full retail model number, find the performance data sheet, look for the exact contaminant and standard, then see whether a public certifier listing uses the same identifier. A product title or a report for a different code is not enough.

The EPA home-filter guide points people to the specific PFAS claim under NSF/ANSI 53 or 58 and to the certifier's directory. It also warns that an existing certification does not automatically answer what happens under newer EPA limits.

EPA guide:
https://www.epa.gov/cleanups/reducing-pfas-your-drinking-water-home-filter

Viomi V8 Pro certificate page:
https://water.viomi.com/pages/certificate-v6-8-pro

NSF drinking-water treatment unit directory:
https://info.nsf.org/Certified/dwtu/

If you review these documents often, what identifier do you check first to confirm that the retail name and certification listing refer to the same unit?