MDI Biological Laboratory

12/09/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 12/09/2024 15:27

New Research Charts PFAS Route From School to Drinking Water

Environment

New Research Charts PFAS Route From School to Drinking Water

  • December 9, 2024
There are wider implications of the analyses, which were led by a Bio Lab Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow; the Lab is expanding testing and partnerships around "forever chemicals"

Peer-reviewed research by MDI Bio Lab's Community Environmental Health Laboratory published this month in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives draws attention to an unexpected source for the spread of PFAS "forever chemicals" to rural water supplies - wastewater from public schools.

"The findings show that private well water is a misnomer," says Jane Disney, Ph.D., who heads the research group. "Our analyses show an example of a school where PFAS in wastewater impacts an entire neighborhood."

Disney explains that groundwater reserves that feed individual wells are often shared between rural neighbors, including schools and firehouses. Schools historically have used PFAS-laden products, from floor waxes to toilet paper, which can be introduced to the environment via their wastewater systems.

Maine schools have worked to ensure safe water supplies for students and staff, but the research demonstrates that more outreach, investigation and protective action is needed in communities around some 56 Maine schools where state data show PFAS levels above federal standards.

Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a growing public health concern, with documented effects on metabolic hormones, cholesterol levels, testicular cancer, hypertension during pregnancy and other physiological effects.

The data analysis that drove MDI Bio Lab's findings was led by Ludwin Moran, a two-time Laboratory Summer Fellow supported by the Maine INBRE, a training network of 17 research and higher education organizations that's led by the lab.

"I created chemical profiles of samples taken near MDI High School and neighborhood wells, " Moran says. "That's how we were able to determine that the residential drinking water was contaminated by a set of PFAS compounds that matched those at the school."

He notes that because of their engagement with the project, citizens affected by contaminants were able to protect themselves by switching to bottled water and in some cases were helped by the state Department of Environmental Protection, which financed the installation of filtration systems in their homes.

"Working at the Lab allowed me to understand how present contaminants are in our lives, and it is feasible to find a way to mitigate them." adds Moran, who recently graduated from College of the Atlantic. "Achieving my first published research was thrilling and has definitely motivated me to keep pursuing more."

MDI Bio Lab's Community Environmental Health Laboratory continues to expand its PFAS research, with new projects and partnerships. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in November added new funding for a joint effort to increase public awareness and testing for PFAS in rural New England's residential water supplies.

The Maine Sea Grant program recently approved a grant for research on how salt marsh grasses may mitigate PFAS effects on coastal ecosystems. Richard Hilliard, Ph.D., is leading that effort.

"Salt marshes are unique, highly productive, and vulnerable ecosystems, vital for a number of cultural, economic, and environmental reasons," he says. "We want to understand how PFAS may be accumulating in these systems and what this means for mitigation of the problem."

In addition, the Davis Family Foundation is supporting a partnership between MDI Bio Lab and the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences to measure and track PFAS in ocean water, sediment, and shellfish - including in Bar Harbor's Somes Sound.

"We're looking at the entire coastal watershed," Disney says. "The more we learn about how these substances get from point A to point B, the better we can protect our own health and the environment."

Funding for testing came from grant P30 ES00002 from the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences to the Harvard Chan NIEHS Center and the Shultz Fund at MDI Biological Laboratory. Data analysis was supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under grant numbers P20GM103423 and P20GM104318.