Dr. Carrie McDonough: PFAS Contamination Everywhere

Hidden in your water, food, and even your blood, forever chemicals (PFAS) are nearly impossible to destroy - and now U.S. regulations are being rolled back. Listen in to how PFAS became unavoidable, what they’re doing to our health, and whether we can ever truly get rid of them.

 

In this episode, Therese Markow and Dr. Carrie McDonough discuss perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals. PFAS, which include PFOA and PFOS, are persistent organic pollutants used in various products, such as Teflon for your cooking pans and Scotchgard. While there are natural molecules that incorporate fluorine, the compounds we are most concerned about when we talk about PFAS cannot be synthesized naturally and are difficult to break down. Dr. McDonough discusses exposure risks, how we are exposed, and the efforts that have been made to regulate these chemicals. She emphasizes the need for better detection methods and remediation strategies. 

 

 Key Takeaways:

• While some PFAS are excreted from the human body, many are not and linger in our blood and cells.

• A lot of pollutants accumulate in the adipose fat in the human body. However, PFAS are mostly found in proteins and membranes, such as the kidney, liver, and blood. 

• The first clue that PFAS were widespread in humans was back in the 1970s. However, the results were inconclusive - they just didn’t have the instrumentation they needed to confirm it or the standards from the companies in order to identify the PFAS.

• Biomagnification causes creatures, including humans, that are higher up the food chain to have higher concentrations of PFAS than those lower in the food chain. This includes those who are herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores. 

• Companies have been putting these things out into our environment for decades; for some amount of that time, they knew that they were doing it and that they were toxic, but didn't tell anyone. There is really no way to protect anyone from these chemicals that we did not consent to being in our bodies. 

 

"If you're not living in an area with highly contaminated water, or some kind of large contamination issue, your main source of PFAS is probably your diet." —  Dr. Carrie McDonough

 

Episode References: 

• Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe: https://www.propublica.org/article/3m-forever-chemicals-pfas-pfos-inside-story 

• PFAS leave fingerprints in your blood – researchers are figuring out how forever chemicals transform in your body to read these clues: https://theconversation.com/pfas-leave-fingerprints-in-your-blood-researchers-are-figuring-out-how-forever-chemicals-transform-in-your-body-to-read-these-clues-280396

• Dark Waters: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9071322/ 

• They Poisoned the World: Life and Death in the Age of Forever Chemicals by Mariah Blake: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554198/they-poisoned-the-world-by-mariah-blake/ 

 

Connect with Dr. Carrie McDonough:

Professional Bio: https://www.cmu.edu/chemistry/people/faculty/mcdonough.html 

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Xq5HrPYAAAAJ&hl=en 

Website: https://groups.chem.cmu.edu/mcdonough/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieamcd 

 

Connect with Therese:

Website:  www.criticallyspeaking.net

Bluesky: @CriticallySpeaking.bsky.social

Instagram: @criticallyspeakingpodcast

Email: [e-mail]

 

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