The Microplastics And PFAS Connection
By Cayla Cook and Eva Steinle-Darling
Microplastics, small plastic particles with sizes ranging from 5 millimeters to 1 nanometer with various morphologies such as microfibers, fragments, pellets (nurdles), or microbeads, have received increasing attention, including upcoming statewide monitoring in California.
Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a group of unique chemically stable compounds and, as a result, have made them highly valuable across a wide range of industrial, commercial, and military uses. However, this feature concomitantly makes them recalcitrant and persistent in nature thus coined “forever” chemicals (Lindstrom et al. 2011, Buck et al. 2011). Recent developments in toxicology, coupled with significant political pressure, have put PFAS on the fast-track for regulation in drinking water and wastewater. While co-occurrence is well-known for a variety of contaminants like triclosan and triclocarban, the connecti
Growing Places
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This Is Why You Should Never Drink Water Before Bed
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Chemical-laden indoor dust may interfere with sexual development, reproduction
Indoor dust mimics sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone in human cells, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The dust contains a stew of dozens of chemicals that migrate out of furnishings and that can interfere with sperm counts, fertility, successful birth, and the timing of puberty and menopause.
“We know from decades of research that these hormone-disrupting chemicals are prevalent in our bodies and that our exposures to them are associated with infertility, stunted development, thyroid disease, obesity, and diabetes,” said lead author Anna Young, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Health. “This study adds new evidence incriminating indoor spaces in buildings as a channel through which chemicals from furnishings interfere with our hormones.”