Per and polyfluroralkyl substances (PFAS) are a large diverse class of highly fluorinated synthetic organic substances that have widespread use in modern commerce and are now detected in virtually all Americans. Much PFAS research has focused on contaminated drinking water and affected communities. This presentation will highlight what we have learned about drivers of national scale drinking water quality and potential concerns for the future, as well as new work on alternate exposure pathways, differences between contaminated sites and remote communities, and timescales of responses to changes in chemical production. PFAS will be used as a case study to highlight some contemporary challenges associated with global chemical manufacturing and our reactive regulatory and risk evaluation strategies.
Bio: Professor Elsie Sunderland is Fred Kavli Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University. Her research seeks to better understand how chemicals released by human activity interact with natural ecosystems and affect living systems. Her work quantitatively analyzes the entire exposure pathway for pollutants to identify key processes that have a large influence on their accumulation in living organisms combining environmental measurements with statistical and mechanistic simulation models to project chemical levels over space and time. This integrated approach allows a better understanding of how human activities and climate change are affecting human and ecological health risks associated with environmental toxicants.
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The David Bradford Energy and Environmental Policy Seminar Series is coordinated by the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE), and co-sponsored by the High Meadows Environmental Institute (HMEI).
This in-person event is open to the public. Princeton University community members do not need to RSVP. Members of the general public should RSVP to ccrosby@princeton.edu and will be accommodated as space allows.
This seminar will be livestreamed at http://mediacentrallive.princeton.edu/ and videos of the recordings are posted on C-PREE's YouTube channel within a week or two after the event.
Sponsorship of an event does not constitute institutional endorsement of external speakers or views presented.