Sharp drop in âforever chemicalsâ in seabird eggs hailed as win for regulation
Levels of Pfas in northern gannet eggs in Canada fell up to 74% over 55-year period of study Levels of some of the most dangerous Pfas compounds have dramatically fallen in Canadian seabird eggs, which the authors of a new peer-reviewed study say illustrates how regulations are effective. Researchers looked at Pfas levels in the eggs of northern gannets in the St Lawrence Seaway basin over a 55-year period. Pfas levels shot up from the 1960s through the peak of the chemicalsâ use in the late 1990s and early aughts, then fell. The fall coincides with several developments â facing regulatory scrutiny, the chemical giant 3M, which is one of the largest producers of Pfas, began moving away from Pfos, among its most common and toxic compounds. By 2015, major chemical makers reached an agreement with the US Environment Protection Agency to phase out Pfos and Pfoa, the latter a similarly problematic compound. Raphael Lavoie, a co-author and ecotoxicologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, called the findings âgood newsâ. âWe see this incredible rise to a peak where concentrations seem to be higher than toxicological threshold for those birds, then it really decreases
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