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UVM researcher tells committee PFAS moves from soil into crops, raising food-safety questions
Summary
Hao Chen, assistant professor at the University of Vermont, told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee that PFAS from biosolids, packaging and pesticide surfactants can be taken up by plants and move into milk and other food products; Chen said more targeted study is needed on pesticide chemistries and monitoring gaps.
Hao Chen, an assistant professor at the University of Vermont, told the Agriculture, Food Resiliency, & Forestry committee that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, applied to or present in agricultural soil can be taken up by plants and enter the human food chain.
Chen said his team is studying PFAS-contaminated soil from Maine and that contamination from past biosolid applications forced an organic farm to shut down. "PFAS can go to winter triticale, and then it go to the milk, go to the cheese, and to go to the food chain," Chen said during the committee's question-and-answer period.
Why it matters: Chen described PFAS as highly persistent "forever chemicals" that resist chemical breakdown and can persist for decades in soil and organisms. He told lawmakers short-chain and…
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