AUCKLAND, Aug 21 — Nicknamed "forever chemicals,” PFAS are substances that are dangerous to human and animal health and also contaminate soil across much of the planet. To tackle this scourge, researchers in New Zealand have developed a promising method that could eliminate virtually all PFAS from firefighting foam.

Toxic to human and animal health, as well as to the planet, "forever chemicals” (PFAS) show up in many aspects of our daily lives: in paints, varnishes, textiles, food packaging and even toilet paper! While most of these per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemical compounds come into our lives via factories, they can also be found in firefighting foams. It is precisely this type of PFAS that scientists at New Zealand’s University of Auckland have decided to tackle. And they may have found a solution that would reduce such pollutants in soils.

What’s their secret? "Ball milling” using metal balls capable of grinding solid matter at extremely high speed. In collaboration with the US Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers tested their technique in the lab, using soil samples taken from a disused military airbase used as a firefighting training area.

Published in the journal Environmental Science: Advances, the results of their work suggest that ball milling was able to destroy almost all (99.88 per cent to 100 per cent) of the PFAS present in the samples of the soil from the military base where they were taken. A potentially viable solution for cleaning up the soils of military bases, airports and refineries around the world where foam has been used for decades, notes the study. "We’ve established proof-of-concept and believe this method can be scaled up faster and cheaper than alternatives,” Dr Kapish Gobindlal, who led the study, said in a statement published on the Science Daily website.

Considered endocrine disruptors, PFAS are increasingly being called out in scientific publications as risk factors for human health. In particular, these substances are thought to be the cause of certain cancers (testicular, breast, kidney). Significant and prolonged exposure to PFASs can also promote obesity, raise cholesterol levels and cause complications during pregnancy, notably an increased risk of miscarriage or high blood pressure (pre-eclampsia). — ETX Studio