If you’ve used non-stick cookware recently or bought water-resistant clothes, you might have heard about PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” And while it is very hard to break down the PFAS polluting our en
It should be pointed out that all these processes will also destroy any biological organisms that exist in the treated materials. As a result it might be necessary to first filter these organisms out.
i’d imagine with the power of chemistry, you can break down like anything and turn it into something else. it’s just harder when it gets into certain places. along with health and environmental effects
If you asked 10-year-old-me how to solve PFAS contamination, "rock tumbler" seems like something I would have suggested. It didn't work for cleaning dirty dishes but it's bound to work for something!
Great to hear that theoretically PFAS could be broken down into harmless molecules if they were well-contained...
Yeah, just ban them. We seriously need to treat them like we treated CFCs. Industry never likes when their current somewhat-dooming-humanity-but-look-at-all-the-profits chemicals get banned. But in the end their children's expected lifetime will just go up by banning those short-term profit makers.
4:03 But aren't the shorter PFAS the ones which are actually dangerous to health? We should probably be very cautious about making the problem worse in our haste to address consumer concerns.
This is relevant to my work. We are designing an ion exchange system right now for Orange County California. Ironically, the folks primarily responsible for the pfas contaminations are also the ones who can produce the IX media that is capable of removing it. Good money for them for sure.
Thank you SciShow for bringing me the same glee that seeing my earth science teacher in grade school wheeling in a tv on a cart brought me. Stay iconic SciShow.
Should probably also note that the majority of environment PFAS contamination comes from the manufacturers of the PFAS themselves, not the end products.
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Yeah, just ban them. We seriously need to treat them like we treated CFCs. Industry never likes when their current somewhat-dooming-humanity-but-look-at-all-the-profits chemicals get banned. But in the end their children's expected lifetime will just go up by banning those short-term profit makers.