this post was submitted on 19 Apr 2024
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Research into release of ‘forever chemicals’ raises concerns about contamination and human exposure along world’s coastlines

Ocean waves crashing on the world’s shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world’s industrial polluters, new research has found, raising concerns about environmental contamination and human exposure along coastlines.

The study measured levels of PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying aerosols into the air. It found sea spray levels were hundreds of thousands times higher than levels in the water.

The contaminated spray likely affects groundwater, surface water, vegetation, and agricultural products near coastlines that are far from industrial sources of PFAS, said Ian Cousins, a Stockholm University researcher and the study’s lead author.

“There is evidence that the ocean can be an important source [of PFAS air emissions],” Cousins said. “It is definitely impacting the coastline.”

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Title should be "A handful of greedy humans have been so shitty for so long that they've made the world's oceans toxic".

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 months ago

Oh, it's the ocean that's the problem! And here I thought it was all the corporations creating and using PFAS.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I may read that, some day,

but it's a blunt fact that PFAS cannot be produced/manufactured by spraying ocean-water into the air.

Those chemicals are coming from our industry, they are not coming from the ocean.

Aerosoling them by the ocean is only possible if they're being manufactured, then being put into the ocean, who can then aerosol them.

"Emitting" means producing, in most people's minds: emitting means they weren't present, before being emitted.

The kind of reckless incompetence of the headline this was given, is what boosts/empowers climate-denialism.

Propaganda isn't journalism, no matter how many clicks it gains.

bitterness

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

I can't find a better way to describe it.

A lot of factories don't emit chemicals into the air.

If you stood next to a factory there's a high chance you won't be exposed to anything nasty. Or, a lot less than the ocean spray apparently.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

I guess we all need to cut back on cranberries. /s

[–] [email protected] 94 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (5 children)

Extremely misleading title. Sea water alone cannot emmit PFAS. The ocean is already contaminated with PFAS, put their by corporations, and the spray from crashing waves helps spread the contamination .

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Oh...

puts down gun

So the War on Ocean isn't on?

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 months ago

I must be the only one in the thread who knew that by reading the title.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

I didn't think it was misleading, but when I read it I automatically thought the article was talking about the extent of pollution in the ocean, not what everyone else seems to be interpreting it as...

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

That was my first thought. The fucking spray is not creating the chemicals. We created them and they ended up in the ocean.

It's weird because it seems like the author primarily reports on PFAS so you would think he'd know better.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 6 months ago

Not just the title. The slant is evident in the opening paragraph too.

Ocean waves crashing on the world’s shores emit more PFAS into the air than the world’s industrial polluters

Compare to the study title and opening sentences.

Constraining global transport of perfluoroalkyl acids on sea spray aerosol using field measurements

Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are highly persistent anthropogenic pollutants that have been detected in the global oceans. Our previous laboratory studies demonstrated that PFAAs in seawater are remobilized to the air in sea spray aerosols (SSAs).

[–] [email protected] 82 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Correction : Oceans do not emit PFAS. What they do is transport and concentrate them.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 6 months ago (2 children)

No, I'm sorry, that's not the conclusion the industry paid for, now your kneecaps are forfeit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Jokes on you my knees are now plastic and deform instead of break. Human 2.0 is gonna be 60% water and 60% plastics...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

The PFAS is coming from inside the house!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The slant is coming from the guardian here.

The paper talks about how it's transported and re-emitted back into the atmosphere. Because it sticks to the surface of the water, the rate is alarming.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


The study measured levels of PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying aerosols into the air.

The contaminated spray likely affects groundwater, surface water, vegetation, and agricultural products near coastlines that are far from industrial sources of PFAS, said Ian Cousins, a Stockholm University researcher and the study’s lead author.

They are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and are highly mobile once in the environment, so they continuously move through the ground, water and air.

The new research looked at levels in the sea spray as waves crash by testing ocean samples between Southampton in the UK and Chile.

Previous non-peer-reviewed research has found a correlation between higher PFAS levels in vegetation samples and proximity to the ocean, Cousin said, and his team is undertaking a similar study.

He said that the results show how the chemicals are powerful surfactants that concentrate on the surface of water, which helps explain why they move from the ocean to the air and atmosphere.


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