Ocean spray emits more PFAS than industrial polluters, study finds
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/19/ocean-spray-pfas-study
Quand tu respires à pleins poumons en regardant la mer, il y a des chances que tu absorbes une bonne dose de PFAS.
The study measured levels of #PFAS released from the bubbles that burst when waves crash, spraying #aerosols into the #air. It found sea spray levels were hundreds of thousands times higher than levels in the water.
The contaminated spray likely affects groundwater, surface water, vegetation, and agricultural products near coastlines that are far from industrial sources of PFAS, said Ian Cousins, a Stockholm University researcher and the study’s lead author.
“There is evidence that the ocean can be an important source [of PFAS air emissions],” Cousins said. “It is definitely impacting the coastline.”
[...] It is unclear what the findings mean for human exposure. Inhalation of PFAS is an issue, but how much of the chemicals are breathed in, and air concentrations further from the waves, is still unknown.
[...] He said that the results showed how the chemicals are powerful surfactants that concentrate on the surface of water, which helps explain why they move from the ocean to the air and atmosphere.
“We thought PFAS were going to go into the ocean and would disappear, but they cycle around and come back to land, and this could continue for a long time into the future,” he said.