PFAS Central: sharing notable news, scientific papers & events

Although useful, PFAS or highly fluorinated chemicals are associated with serious health harm and can remain in the environment forever.

Latest News

New York Farm Bureau calls for state to test sewage sludge for PFAS

5 Dec 2025 | Spectrum News 1

The New York Farm Bureau will oppose the land application of contaminated sewage sludge and encourage testing prior to spreading, a change from their supportive position last year, the organization announced Friday.

Are there forever chemicals in your water? Here's the latest data.

5 Dec 2025 | USA Today

Since the EPA last updated these records in August, over 100 additional public drinking water systems have reported yearly averages of PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, that exceed new limits the EPA approved in 2024.

High levels of ‘forever chemical’ found in cereal products across Europe – study

4 Dec 2025 | The Guardian

The study found trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a chemical produced when pesticides containing Pfas chemicals break down into the soil, in breakfast cereals, popular sweets, pasta, croissants, wholemeal and refined bread, and flour.

More cities are seeing PFAS pollution in drinking water. Here’s what Louisville found

1 Dec 2025 | NPR

At the Louisville Water Co., the team's calculations eventually showed that the December 2024 spike in GenX levels corresponded to publicly-available data from Chemours, about its chemical discharges into the Ohio River.

Officials make disturbing discovery after drawing blood from residents near US military base: 'We've had it'

29 Nov 2025 | Yahoo!News

What was most staggering in the discovery, however, was that 26% of plume area participants had PFAS levels in the highest concentration tier, meaning they were exposed to nearly ten times the amount of the common group.

Latest Science

Mediating role of proteomics in the association between per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance exposure and blood pressure in youth

15 Dec 2025 | Environ Pollut.

PFOA, PFNA, PFOS, PFHxS, and PFHpS, exposure may be associated with higher blood pressure in youth through protein changes (particularly galectin-3) involving inflammatory and scarred tissue.

Investigating anaerobic digestion microbiome resilience to high PFOA and PFOS mixtures during cometabolism

8 Dec 2025 | Bioresour. Technol.

High levels of PFOA and PFOS may interfere with how microbes create biogas during anaerobic digestion, which is important for waste-treatment policy because it suggests these chemicals can disrupt sludge processing while showing no clear signs of degradation.

Assessing the impact of perfluoroalkyl substances on liver health: A comprehensive study using multi-donor human liver spheroids

8 Dec 2025 | Environ. Int.

PFHxS, PFOA, PFOS, and PFNA may interfere with liver function in different ways depending on the specific chemical and the sex of the donor cells, potentially contributing to fat buildup in the liver, weakened immune activity, and molecular changes linked to cancer development.

Development and validation of an LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of 39 PFAS in soil samples: applications to playgrounds in Attica, Greece

4 Dec 2025 | Anal Bioanal Chem

An optimized research method was found to be a useful tool for environmental and public-health decision making by reliably detecting 39 PFAS in playground soils, and the results suggest that some PFAS levels may potentially exceed a precautionary child-health screening value of about 100 ng per kg of body weight per day.

Evaluation of fluorochemical leaching from lithium-ion batteries under simulated solid waste landfill conditions

3 Dec 2025 | Environ. Sci. Technol.

Lithium-ion batteries may release multiple fluorochemicals, including PFAS such as 2,4-difluorobenzoic acid and several fluorinated electrolyte additives, under simulated landfill conditions, suggesting that end-of-life battery disposal may introduce additional PFAS sources into landfill leachate.

Latest Policy

[Job] Policy Advocate

1 Feb 2026

NRDC is seeking a Policy Advocate to work with the Toxics team in any of our offices, preferably San Francisco or Washington, D.C. 

New York City bill aims to ban toxic ‘forever chemicals’ in firefighting gear

2 Dec 2025

The New York fire department is the nation’s largest firefighting force, and approval of the legislation would mark a major win for advocates who are pushing for safer ‘turnout gear’ alternatives across the US.

EPA approves new pesticide with PFAS, sparking health concerns

28 Nov 2025

The EPA said in its approval documents that it found “no human-health risks of concern when used as directed.” Several experts dispute that conclusion and argue that the agency’s review did not fully account for how PFAS accumulate in soil and water or how they move into food.

Toy safety: Parliament adopts new rules to enhance child health protection

25 Nov 2025

The new rules also ban the intentional use of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) and the most dangerous types of bisphenols.

[Public Comment] Prohibition of the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, excluding fluoropolymers, in firefighting foams in Canada

25 Nov 2025

The main purpose of this consultation document is to inform interested parties and solicit comments on the proposed regulatory approach to prohibit the manufacture, import, use and sale of PFAS in firefighting foams for those PFAS that are not already regulated.

Opportunities

[Public Comment] EPA Seeks Comment in Effort To Loosen Decade of Forever-Chemical Reporting

Posted: 13 Nov 2025

The proposed change, announced on Monday, would loosen the reporting requirements manufacturers face when disclosing their use of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

[Job] Policy Advocate

Posted: 1 Feb 2026

NRDC is seeking a Policy Advocate to work with the Toxics team in any of our offices, preferably San Francisco or Washington, D.C. 

PFAS Central Partners

Green Science Policy Institute Northeastern University Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute