FLUOROS 2023

Valentina Bertato has been working in the European Commission since 2011, dealing mainly with chemicals policy. She is currently focusing on REACH restrictions for environmental risks (including microplastics, lead and PFAS) and on international work on chemicals. Her background is in environmental chemistry. Her previous working experiences are on technical and regulatory issues of chemicals, waste management and environmental management systems.

Specifically on PFAS, she is the main author of the PFAS action plan, which is included in the European Commission Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability. She is working on the REACH restrictions on PFAS and on the proposals for listing in the Stockholm Convention. She is closely following all developments related to PFAS in the different EU legislations.

Exploring the Fate, Disposition, and Persistence of organofluorine chemicals has been the major areas of research focus since ~1990. We use a suite of “reactors” including rats, smog chambers, soils, sunlit water, fish, etc to explore kinetics and reaction pathways with particular focus on reactive intermediates with potential for toxicity.  We synthesize what we need to for identification and further experimentation and frequently develop specialized analytical methods. Objective is to better understand chemical pollution while also using these “pollutants” as chemical probes to enhance our understanding of the natural world. Awards include the CIC Environment R&D award, the 2015 ISI Most Highly Cited (Ecology & Evolution), and multiple teaching awards (LIFT, OCUFA, A&S); current H-factor (72 WOS; 75 Scopus).  Other passions include building soil health aka farming (corn, canola, soybeans, wheat, adzuki beans, hay).

PFAS Today…what has been done and what still needs to be done

Anna Kärrman is an associate professor in chemistry at Örebro University, Sweden. She has studied PFAS since 2002 and focus on analytical methods, distribution in the environment, sources, and human exposure. Her main research agenda is to develop relevant and sensitive methods for characterization of contaminants of emerging concern and to unravel the identity of drivers of toxicity.

The PFAS analytical toolbox – challenges and possibilities.

Carrie McDonough is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her B. Sc. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. Her research resides at the intersection of environmental analytical chemistry, environmental health engineering, and chemical biology. She is interested in understanding how organic contaminants impact aquatic ecosystems and human health, with an emphasis on chronic exposures to complex environmentally-relevant mixtures. She is currently working on several projects focused on the toxicokinetics of PFAS mixtures and comprehensive high-resolution mass spectrometry approaches to PFAS biomonitoring. 

Tackling the complexity of PFASs: From external exposure to internal dose 

Kristina Jakobsson, MD, PhD, is a professor in clinical environmental medicine at the unit of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Over the years, her research has covered occupational respiratory diseases and occupational cancer, air pollution and health and environmental exposures to persistent pollutants. Internationally, she is engaged in research on the long-term health effects of working in heat, focusing on kidney disease. Since 2014 she has been the PI for a series of studies on health effects after very high exposure to PFAS in a Swedish municipality.

Research, risk evaluation and risk communication. Experiences from a PFAS hot spot in Sweden.  

Christopher P. Higgins is an environmental chemist at the Colorado School of Mines. Dr. Higgins’ received his A.B. in Chemistry from Harvard University, and graduate degrees in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. He joined Mines in 2009, attaining the title of University Distinguished Professor in 2022. He was the recipient of the 2019 Huber Prize in Civil Engineering Research awarded by the American Society of Civil Engineers, and was the lead Principal Investigator for the 2020 Environmental Restoration Project of the Year for the U.S. DoD’s Strategic Environmental Research & Development Program. His research focuses on the movement of contaminants in the environment. In particular, he studies chemical fate and transport in natural and engineered systems, with a focus on poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Dr. Higgins has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications. His research has been supported by NSF, NIH, EPA, USDA, and the DoD.

Treating for Legacy PFASs: An Overview of Existing and Promising Technologies for Remediating Contaminated Water & Soil

Dr. Zhanyun Wang has recently joined the Technology & Society Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA). As an environmental chemist by training, his research interests focus primarily on understanding the life cycles and risks of various anthropogenic chemicals in the technosphere and natural environment. He is also very interested in exploring novel and pragmatic approaches to advancing sound chemicals management, enabling a sustainable circular economy, and strengthening the science–policy interface on chemicals and waste.

Understanding the universe of PFASs — implications for regulations.

Xenia Trier is an analytical chemist and advisor on PFAS, who has worked on PFAS since 2002 and did her Ph.D. on PFAS in paper and board food contact materials (2011). From 2016-2022 she worked at the European Environment Agency on chemicals, supporting the development and implementation of the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, the PFAS strategy, on safe and sustainable by design, early warning systems, data platforms and indicators. Since August 2022 she is back in research at UCPH doing analytical environmental chemistry on PFAS and other surfactants in support of regulation.

PFAS analysis fit for regulation – on the art of living with uncertainty