High levels of ‘forever chemicals’ likely making alligators sick in Cape Fear River

By Tom Perkins | The Guardian | October 20, 2022

Read the full article by Tom Perkins (The Guardian)

"High levels of PFAS discharged into the Cape Fear River from a Chemours plant in Fayetteville, North Carolina, are likely making local alligators sick with autoimmune disorders that appear similar to human diseases like lupus, a new study finds.

The peer-reviewed study, published Thursday in the Frontiers in Toxicology journal, tested blood from alligators in the Cape Fear watershed that have been exposed to Chemours pollution for decades. The alligators showed extremely high levels of PFAS compounds and markers of immune disease in their blood.

“This really highlights the damage that we’re seeing across the ecosystem from PFAS, and shows we’re just starting to scratch the surface of their impacts,” said North Carolina State University researcher and study co-author Scott Belcher. “The idea that they’re going to be around and contaminating water systems for the foreseeable future is truly shocking.”