Avoiding the Next Silent Spring: Our Chemical Past, Present, and Future
English
Arp, Hans Peter H.[Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), P.O. Box 3930, Ullevål Stadion, 0806 Oslo, Norway > > > ; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491, Trondheim, Norway > Department of Chemistry]
Aurich, Dagny[University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) > Environmental Cheminformatics >]
Schymanski, Emma[University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) > Environmental Cheminformatics >]
[en] Rachel Carson's Silent Spring,1 published just over 60 years ago, outlined how the indiscriminate use of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT), a potent, environmentally persistent insecticide, was damaging the world's ecosystems, animals and food supply. There were many other chemicals more persistent than DDT accumulating in the environment when Carson was writing, including per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Whilst man-made, PFAS were not intended to cause harm, contrary to pesticides such as DDT. Today, ambient PFAS levels are contaminating rain, soil and drinking water resources worldwide to such an extent that they have caused substantial, irreversible health and environmental damage.2 Like DDT, PFAS were long in use by the time Rachel Carson was writing Silent Spring (see Figure 1). However, their environmental presence went unnoticed by Carson and other contemporary environmental researchers. PFAS were entering the environment under the radar, except to those who were manufacturing and emitting them.3
European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant Agreement No 101036756, ZeroPM ; Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR), project A18/BM/12341006 ; Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Luxembourg, project LuxTIME
[Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI), P.O. Box 3930, Ullevål Stadion, 0806 Oslo, Norway > > > ; Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491, Trondheim, Norway > Department of Chemistry]
