Environmental contamination by fluorinated chemicals, in particular chemicals from the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) class, has raised concerns around the globe because of documented adverse impacts on human health, wildlife, and ecosystem quality.
Recent studies have indicated that pesticide products may contain a variety of chemicals that meet the PFAS definition, including the active pesticide ingredients themselves.Given that pesticides are some of the most widely distributed pollutants across the world, the legacy impacts of PFAS addition into pesticide products could be widespread and have wide-ranging implications on agriculture and food and water contamination, as well as the presence of PFAS in rural environments.
We believe these data indicate that some pesticide products contain complex mixtures of ultrashort-chain to long-chain PFAS that are present in parts-per-billion concentrations for some of the long- and short-chain PFAS and up to parts-per-hundred concentrations for some of the ultrashort-chain PFAS active ingredients.
The long-term impacts of using mixtures of extremely persistent chemicals on potentially hundreds of millions of acres of US land every year is, to us, a cause for concern.
Most, if not all, PFAS in pesticide products or their degradates are going to be chronic persistent pollutants for the foreseeable future of humanity, and their ultimate impact on human and environmental health are largely unknown.
Here we have identified steps the US government can take to mitigate potential impacts of fluorinated components in pesticides with the ultimate goal of eliminating or reducing their use altogether.