PFAS: Long-term Persistent Chemicals

This is a news story, published by Nature, that relates primarily to PFAS news.

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Nature

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‘Forever’ chemicals can be destroyed with clever chemistry — now test these techniques outside the lab

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A simple chemical bond between carbon and fluorine atoms changed the world — for the better, and then for the worse.

Such bonds lie at the heart of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ( PFAS ), a group of compounds, numbering in the millions , that are remarkably water-, heat- and greaseproof.

Discovered in the 1930s with the advent of polytetrafluoroethylene ( PTFE , branded as Teflon ), these chemicals make pans non-stick and keep the rain off our jackets.

They have become known as forever chemicals’ because they are difficult to break down, persisting in the environment for perhaps 1,000 .

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