TalkingPFAS

Professor Chris Higgins, an expert in environmental engineering from the Colorado School of Mines, discusses the pressing issue of PFAS contamination. He highlights innovative soil washing techniques being developed in Australia to tackle these pollutants. The conversation dives into the complexities of PFAS, including their persistent presence in consumer products and the challenges for wastewater treatment. Chris emphasizes the long-term implications for environmental engineers and the need for greater understanding and regulation of these hazardous substances.

This is the final episode for Season 2 and 2019 - Taking a longer break (for other PFAS work) next one due approximately May/June 2020In today’s episode I will be talking PFAS in the waste streams and their release back into the environment, and possible effects of some of these transmission pathways on agriculture and hence the food chain.For the main discussion I will be talking with researcher, Christie Gallen, from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, discussing her research into PFASs in landfill leachate, WWTPs, biosolids and QLD floodwaters.Christie has a background in Chemistry and Biology and has an Honours degree in Chemistry. She currently works as a research assistant in Brisbane.Throughout today’s episode I will bring in some facts from Christie’s research papers and also put a link to her four papers in the show notes.I will also incorporate other relevant information about PFAS in landfills, biosolids, and WWTPs, and also highlight some brief overseas case study examples from Michigan, Maine, and even Alaska.Show Notes: Research Gallen et al1. PFAS flood watersSpatio-temporal assessment of perfluorinated compounds in the Brisbane River system, Australia: Impact of a major flood event (2014)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0025326X140011062. A mass estimate of perfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) release from Australian wastewater treatment plants (2018)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S00456535183109813. Australia-wide assessment of perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in landfill leachates (2017)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389417300870?via%3Dihub4. Occurrence and distribution of brominated flame retardants and perfluoroalkyl substances in Australian landfill leachate and biosolids (2016)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304389416302539?via%3DihubBloomberg Environment Parts Per Billion Podcast - Maine Dairy Farmer Fred Stone PFAS & Biosolidshttps://news.bloombergenvironment.com/environment-and-energy/the-farmer-who-got-punished-for-reporting-pollution-podcastSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Helena Hinrichsen is an Environmental Engineer from EnvyTech Solutions AB, Sweden was a presenter at the 2019 Clean Up Conference held in Adelaide between 8-12 September. I caught up with her at the conference for a short interview, where we discuss some of the challenges with remediation of PFAS. Helena believes there is not one solution for a PFAS problem, and that collaboration is key to solving the PFAS problem. She says the main three treatments for PFAS are thermal, chemistry and mechanical and Helena says "by combining them we can get a better solution than just using one of them." Helena is involved in, what she believes is the first project in the world, where they are using two combined methods for stabilisation both for groundwater and unsaturated soil, which is the soil above the groundwater. Today's talk is a bit technical but it was great to hear about some methods for treating PFAS. Helena also says, "I think what we all need to know is that we actually are moving forward. It is not always bad things. Yeah it is bad, it is really bad, but good things are happening. Man created it and we are really good at creating things so solutions are coming along so I see there is hope."Show Note Links:Guest speaker Helena Hinrichsen, Project Manager, EnvyTech Solutions AB Sweden http://envytech.se/om-envytech/"Helena has long experience in planning and project management of remediation works and possesses top-level expertise in soil and groundwater treatment techniques. Helena also has long experience of working with overall commitments on remediation projects, which includes all information from the notification and public contacts to planning, project management, monitoring and final reporting."CRC Care has published a link from the 2019 Clean Up Conference where you can download presentations from a range of sessions, including many PFAS sessions. This is where you can see the full presentation by Ian Cousins, Stockholm University, Sweden (mentioned briefly in today's episode) - you will see where he got the number of 4700 PFAS chemicals as well.http://adelaide2019.cleanupconference.com/presentations/IPEN has some great reports on PFAS - here is their latest report referred to briefly in today's episodehttps://ipen.org/news/new-report-perfluorohexane-sulfonate-pfhxs%E2%80%94-socio-economic-impact-exposure-and-precautionarySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's discussion is with Professor Ravi Naidu the founder of CRC Care. This interview was recorded at the CRC Care 2019 Clean Up Conference held in Adelaide, Australia between 8-12 September. There were 700 delegates representing 35 countries, with many world leaders in the field of remediation. In this episode Professor Naidu talks about the important work that CRC Care do in bringing industry, regulators, polluters, and academic professionals together. He says "CRC Care is a Co-operative Research Centre for Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment. Our job is to develop innovative technologies and solutions for the prevention, assessment and remediation of contaminated land." He said there are over 160,000 contaminated sites in Australia (*NB there are not all PFAS sites). He said if PFAS sites were included there would be more than 160,000 contaminated sites in Australia mainly in urban areas. In the last 20 years, he says Australia has only managed to remediate about 5% of these sites. Professor Naidu believes PFAS is a far more challenging contaminant than arsenic or lead to come up with solutions. Professor Naidu also discusses CRC Care's funding challenges as their Commonwealth Government funding is due to expire 30 June 2020 and he explains what that would mean in relation to contaminated sites in Australia, if CRC Care failed to continue.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jennifer Spencer had a dream of training race horses on her own property. In 2012, she bought a property in Oakey, QLD to fulfil that dream where she wouldn't have water worries. But shortly after buying that property she discovered that the abundant bore was contaminated with PFAS chemicals, from AFFF fire fighting foam used by Defence, at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre since the 1970's. Jennifer along with many hundreds of residents in Australia have been fighting to get compensation. The Australian Government has still not responded to the recommendations from the 2018 PFAS Inquiry. The Australian Government has also just stopped the free PFAS blood tests for Oakey, Katherine and Williamtown and the free mental health counselling via Support Now, as at 30 June, 2019.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's episode is the journey of two QLD stud producers, Dianne Priddle and David Jefferis, who live in the Department of Defence's PFAS management area in Oakey. Dianne also has MS and fears that the stress will advance her condition. They are proud stud producers, and fear for their future because of PFAS contamination that is migrating towards them from the Army Aviation Centre Oakey. This is their story and it is also a pre-election special as they talk about what they want and need the Government to do for them. Australia is one week away from a Federal election. The commencement of the joint class action trial for Oakey Williamtown and Katherine residents has been put off - it is no longer the 12/8/2019 - no new date has been set. Residents all around Australia are disappointed by the news. The Australian Liberal Government is yet to respond to the recommendations of the Committee from the 2018 PFAS Inquiry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode is an interview with Professor Cathy Banwell. We discuss the Focus Group Study Report that was released by ANU Canberra on 19 March, 2019. This report is one component of the PFAS Health Study which is being conducted by ANU Canberra. Professor Banwell is a Co-Investigator on the PFAS Health Study and was the Lead of the Focus Groups. Focus groups were conducted in three communities, Katherine (NT) Williamtown (NSW) and Oakey (QLD). These three communities are the only communities the ANU has been commissioned to work in, even though there are many sites in Australia, including 27 Defence bases which have been or are currently being investigated for PFAS. Additional focus groups were held in three Aboriginal communities on the outskirts of Katherine and also separate focus groups were held in Williamtown, Oakey and Katherine for Defence personnel, contractors and their families. This report provides more detail of the many social, physical, financial, mental and emotional effects PFAS is having on communities. The Australian Government now has recommendations from two PFAS Inquiries conducted in Australia in 2015 & 2018 and now the ANU Focus Group Study Report to inform their decision making and hopefully help them respond to the many communities around Australia who are struggling with the many effects of PFAS contamination on and around their properties. The Australian Government is still due to respond to the recent 2018 PFAS Inquiry.https://rsph.anu.edu.au/files/FINAL%20PFAS%20Health%20Study%20Focus%20Groups%20Report%20February%202019_3.pdfSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today’s episode is a conversation with Assistant Professor Andres Cardenas from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr Cardenas has been the lead author of two PFAS studies but the focus of today’s conversation is his research published in 2018.The objective of the study was to determine the extent to which PFASs are associated with increases in weight and body size and evaluate whether a lifestyle intervention modifies this association.“We found that PFASs measured in blood are associated with weight gain. However we see that exercise and diet, so this is a lifestyle intervention of exercise and diet was able to attenuate this weight gain, that is associated with this PFAS exposure.”The importance of Dr Cardenas’s research is because PFASs are chemicals that are suspected endocrine disruptors.Show Notes: Episode 111. Research Paper Cardenas et al Published 2/10/2017 in Environmental Health Perspectives: https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP1612“Plasma Concentrations of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances at Baseline and Associations with Glycemic Indicators and Diabetes Incidence among High-Risk Adults in the Diabetes Prevention Program Trial.”2. Research Paper Cardenas et al Published August 31, 2018 in JAMA Network Open: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.1493“Association of Perfluoroalkyl Substances with Adiposity.” 3. Research Paper (Dr Cardenas referred to in the show by colleagues whofound similar PFAS & weight gain associations) https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1002502See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode 6, I interviewed Dr Brett Turner from the University of Newcastle and we discussed the original work he, and his team have been doing using HEMP plant proteins to remove PFAS from water. Last time we spoke in 2018 he was waiting on funding to take his 'Australian first' research to the next level. In Episode 8, Senator Brian Burston from the United Australia Party was confident he could arrange funding for Dr Brett Turner's work with the Finance Minister Senator Mathias Cormann. His efforts were successful and the Australian Government will be providing $4.7 million to support the work of Dr Brett Turner and Professor Scott Sloan from the University of Newcastle. This episode features interviews with Senator Brian Burston, Dr Brett Turner and also the Federal Member for Paterson Meryl Swanson, who was also working behind the scenes to try and get funding for the HEMP project.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Australia in 2018 a PFAS Inquiry looking at PFAS contamination in and around Defence bases was conducted. The Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade presented their report to Government on the 3/12/2019. The Australian Government is due to respond to the committee's report and their recommendations by the 3/3/2019. In this episode you will hear Mr Andrew Laming, the former Chair of the Committee's address to the House of Representatives plus many voices and stories from residents affected by PFAS contamination from Williamtown (NSW), Oakey (QLD) and Katherine (NT) plus a few other witnesses from the various public hearings.Show Notes:Home page to the 2018 PFAS Inquiry - where you can access submissions, transcripts from public hearings, the Committee's Report plus the Governments response (when available - due 3/3/2019)https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/InquiryintoPFAS/Report_1See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.