In spite of all the social media frothing at the mouth about PFAS, science continues its march. Recently, scientists have identified the 11 genes that are directly affected by PFASs and their siblings.
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-scientists-genes-affected-pfas-neurotoxicity.html
What this will eventually let us do is measure how much a human has been affected by these chemicals. See, we’ve managed to prove how they affect things in a lab setting, but the actual impact on something as big and complex as a human body is still in the category of “well, we’re not 100% sure”. But with this information, we might be able to figure that bit as well.
Which is good news because apparently we’ve been ignoring an entire class of forever chemicals. Specifically, the ones that are used in pharmaceuticals. See, the addition of fluorine allows medications to last longer in the body, which is good, but also allows the medication to survive outside the body when it’s excreted. So it ends up in the wastewater and back into the water cycle itself.
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-chemicals-wastewater-widespread-previously-reveals.html
And, in addition to the fishies getting a dose of your supplements, they also get more than their fair share of microplastics.
A recent study showed that only a tiny fraction of the microplastics in seafood come from how we harvest, process, package, and sell them. In fact, just rinsing your food takes care of that. The rest of the microplastics come from their environment and the food they eat.
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-microplastics-widespread-seafood-people.html
Which means the plastic bag is already in your fish, and so is any fluorine based medication. Which is why these next two studies are so important.
First is something that has been going on for a while but is moving slowly but surely towards widespread adoption. And that is the use of engineered bacteria to break down microplastics in wastewater.
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-bacteria-microplastics-wastewater.html
And, by using silk as a base for filtration membranes, another study found a far more efficient method of removing over 99% of organic pollutants in wastewater. Which includes PFASs!
https://techxplore.com/news/2025-01-silk-based-nanofiltration-membrane-purify.html
All this matters because we still don’t have a global treaty about plastic, its use, and its disposal.
https://phys.org/news/2025-01-failure-plastics-treaty-health-crisis.html
The issue isn’t just the generation and use of plastic itself, it’s also how we dispose of it. As it stands, we either bury it, burn it, or dump it in the ocean. But at least with the tweaked bacteria and silky smooth filters, we are moving towards keeping it out of the ocean.
You know, where the fishies live.
(if you'd prefer this as a newsletter/podcast: https://therightfilter.substack.com/s/drip-feed)