New restrictions on PFAS and other potentially hazardous chemicals in Australia present an opportunity for industry to develop alternatives for new, safe and clean products.
Lake surrounding a mining site in Northern Québec.
(Maxime Thomas)
Maxime Thomas, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT); Hugo Asselin, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT); Mebarek Lamara, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), and Nicole Fenton, Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT)
Human activities can affect plants and have consequences for the human populations that consume them.
Every household is more likely than not to have dusts containing PFAS chemicals at low concentrations. But how worried should we be about the risks to our personal health?
Clean water is in short supply around the world. But it doesn’t have to be.
borgogniels/Getty Images
From persistent chemicals to exhaust particulate matter, snow accumulates highly toxic pollutants. Regulations are needed to address the impacts on water supplies and the food chain.
UV absorbents and industrial antioxidants can reach aquatic environments through the degradation of plastics, or via wastewater treatment plant effluents.
(Environment and Climate Change Canada)
UV absorbents and industrial antioxidants are used in many household goods to protect them from UV radiation. They can have an adverse impact on ecosystems.
Smaller animals that feed lower in the food web might be at greater risk from microplastic exposure than larger ones.
(Shutterstock)
We need to advance our understanding of the effects of microplastics on aquatic ecosystems, especially on small animals at the base of food webs that might be ingesting more of these particles.
Humanity’s biggest challenges are not technical, but social, economic, political and behavioural. Effective actions are still possible to stabilise the climate and the planet, but must be taken now.
Hot mix asphalt plants should not be built within residential areas and around water resources.
Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Image
Kate Flint, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Images of wildfires are powerful, but can make climate catastrophe seem like something spectacular and distant. So some artists are focusing on the plants and bugs in our immediate surroundings.
Firefighting foam containing PFAS can get into waterways. But the evidence doesn’t give us reason to worry about our health.
From shutterstock.com
Episodes of reported PFAS contamination are never far from the news. Here’s a run-down of what PFAS is, and why we have little reason to worry about its potential effects on our health.
In Paris’s André-Citroën Park, a balloon is used to measure air pollution.
Bertrand Guay/AFP
The number of substances emitted into the atmosphere is immense and growing, but some are particularly harmful to health and are subject to increased monitoring.
When present in the lowest atmospheric layer – the troposphere, 8-14 kilometers above earth – ozone becomes a concern for human and plant health.
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