{"id":7504,"date":"2022-08-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/22-08-2022\/forever-chemicals\/"},"modified":"2022-08-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T00:00:00","slug":"forever-chemicals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/22-08-2022\/forever-chemicals","title":{"rendered":"Forever Chemicals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>In Context\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\">A recent study found that rainwater from many places across the globe is contaminated with \u201cper- and <\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>polyfluoroalkyl substances,\u201d (PFAs)<\/strong><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\">.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:13pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><strong>What are PFAs?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">They are called \u201cforever chemicals\u201d because of their tendency to stick around in the <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>atmosphere, rainwater and soil for long periods of time.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">They are <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>man-made chemicals<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"> used to make nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, stain-resistant fabrics, cosmetics, firefighting forms and many other products that resist grease, water and oil.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>They can migrate <\/strong><\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">to the soil, water and air during their production and use.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Since most PFAs do not break down, they <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><strong>remain in the environment for long periods of time.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Some of these PFAs can build up in people and animals if they are repeatedly exposed to the chemicals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">\u00a0Health risks<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Decreased fertility, developmental effects in children, interference with body hormones, increased cholesterol levels and increased risk of some cancers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">\u00a0long-term low-level exposure to certain PFAs can make it difficult for humans to build antibodies after being vaccinated against various diseases.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:disc\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Measures\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">There are many effective, albeit expensive, methods to remove them from rainwate<\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">r that have been collected through various rainwater harvesting methods.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">It can be done with the use of a filtration system with activated carbon.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:circle\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">Recently,. The researchers first placed a PFA compound in a solvent called <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide<\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">).\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type:square\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">They then mixed it with sodium hydroxide (lye) in water. They found that when this mixture was heated up to boiling temperature, <\/span><span style=\"font-size:12pt\">the PFA compound began to degrade.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\">Source:<\/span><\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-health\/explained-forever-chemicals-contaminating-rainwater-globally-8102861\/\" style=\"text-decoration-line:none\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-size:12pt\"><span style=\"font-family:\"Book Antiqua\",serif\"><span style=\"color:#1155cc\">IE<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Context\u00a0 A recent study found that rainwater from many places across the globe is contaminated with \u201cper- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,\u201d (PFAs). What are PFAs? They are called \u201cforever chemicals\u201d because of their tendency to stick around in the atmosphere, rainwater and soil for long periods of time. They are man-made chemicals used to make [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-7504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-science-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/7772340Screenshot_20220822-210619_Chrome.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}