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<ul class="summary-list"><li>Lithium-ion batteries are the most common type of battery found in electric vehicles.</li><li>Scientists found they contain PFAS or 'forever chemicals' found in air, water, snow, soil, and sediment.</li></ul>Scientists have uncovered a new source of hazardous "forever chemical" pollution: the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries found in most electric vehicles.Some lithium-ion battery technologies use a class of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-are-pfas-chemicals-2018-8">PFAS chemicals</a>, or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, that helps make batteries less flammable and conduct electricity. Scientists found high levels of these PFAS in air, water, snow, soil, and sediment samples near plants that make those chemicals in the US, Belgium, and France, according to a <a target="_blank" href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49753-5">peer-reviewed study</a> in the journal Nature Communications.PFAS are known as "forever chemicals" because they <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chart-how-long-hazardous-forever-chemicals-pfas-stay-in-blood-2023-3">build up quickly</a> in the environment, people, and animals and don't break down for thousands of years. They've been linked to a host of health conditions, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/tp200.pdf">liver damage</a>, high <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2831917/">cholesterol</a>, low <a target="_blank" href="https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1408837/">birth weights</a>, and chronic <a target="_blank" href="https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/174/8/893/155305">kidney disease</a>.The findings underscore how switching to cleaner cars and renewable energy is key to solving the climate crisis, but comes with its own set of trade-offs that are still emerging and understudied. While the environmental and health impacts of mining lithium and other minerals used in batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, and other technology are well documented, it's only now that researchers are uncovering lithium-ion batteries as a source of PFAS pollution."Slashing [carbon dioxide] emissions with innovations like electric cars is critical, but it shouldn't come with the side effect of increasing PFAS pollution," Jennifer Guelfo, an associate professor of environmental engineering at Texas Tech University and coauthor of the study, said in a statement.It's an issue of global concern because lithium-ion batteries are used worldwide, the study said. The same class of PFAS has recently been detected at low levels in European and Chinese water, but the source of the pollution was unclear.The specific class of PFAS that Guelfo's team found is called bis-perfluoroalkyl sulfonimides, or bis-FASIs. Scientists tested more than a dozen lithium-ion batteries used in EVs and consumer electronics like laptops, and found bis-FASIs at various concentrations.It's hard to know just how widespread the chemicals are in specific lithium-ion batteries because there isn't enough research yet, Lee Ferguson, associate professor of environmental engineering at Duke University and coauthor of the study, said.Guelfo said bis-FASIs is comparable to "older notorious" chemicals like PFOA, in part because they are extremely difficult to degrade and studies show the chemicals change the behavior of aquatic organisms at low concentrations. PFOA has been phased out of production in the US but <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/epa-hazardous-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-limits-2024-4">continues to pollute drinking water</a>.The study was the first "cradle-to-grave" evaluation of the environmental impacts of bis-FASI use in lithium-ion batteries. The effects of bis-FASIs in humans hasn't been studied yet.The scientists detected bis-FASIs chemicals at parts per billion levels — much higher than the limits the Environmental Protection Agency <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/epa-hazardous-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-limits-2024-4">set for PFAS in drinking water in April</a>. Strategies to get rid of PFAS in drinking water can also remove bis-FASIs, the study said, which should become more widely adopted due to EPA's regulations. However, chemical makers and some water utilities <a target="_blank" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/06/21/nx-s1-5013957/pfas-forever-chemicals-drinking-water-rule-lawsuits">have challenged the agency in court.</a>Other routes of exposure to bis-FASIs exist. Air emissions data suggest the chemicals can travel to areas far from manufacturing sites. They can also leach into the environment from landfills, where the majority of lithium-ion batteries end up.The study said only about 5% of lithium-ion batteries are recycled, and by 2040, there could be some 8 million tons of lithium-ion battery waste.Guelfo said scientists, engineers, manufacturers, and policymakers need to develop battery technology and recycling solutions that don't exacerbate PFAS pollution."We need to be carefully evaluating these chemicals that are being used in sustainable energy infrastructure," Guelfo said. "We should be evaluating them now before it becomes a more widespread problem. We an opportunity to really maximize the idea of sustainability."Companies including 3M, Solvay, and Arkema either hold patents for bis-FASIs or advertise its production or use, the study said. (In December — after the research was conducted — Solvay spun off its specialty and applied chemical businesses into a new entity named Syensqo. The lithium battery business is housed there.)Scientists focused their research on areas near the companies' manufacturing plants in Minnesota, Kentucky, Antwerp, Belgium, and Salindres, France.3M has manufactured PFAS for decades and last year <a target="_blank" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/business/3m-settlement-forever-chemicals-lawsuit.html">agreed to a $10 billion settlement</a> with US cities and towns over their claims that the company contaminated drinking water with forever chemicals. 3M said it will exit all PFAS manufacturing by the end of 2025.The company's settlement followed another agreement by Chemours, DuPont and Corteva to pay $1.19 billion to help resolve thousands of lawsuits.Correction: July 8, 2024 — This story was updated to clarify the name of one of the companies that make EV battery materials. After the research, Solvay spun off its lithium battery business into a new entity named Syensqo.

The most common type of EV battery is a growing source of 'forever chemical' pollution, scientists say

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The Biden administration has set the first-ever limits on levels of PFAS in drinking water.</li><li>These "forever chemicals" are linked to some cancers, lower fertility, and other health issues.</li></ul>The Biden administration is cracking down on toxic "forever chemicals" that are widespread in America's tap water, food, and household products.The EPA on Wednesday finalized the first-ever limits on levels of PFAS in drinking water, putting the chemicals in the same class of other well-known pollutants like lead, arsenic, and nitrate.PFAS are called "forever chemicals" because they don't biodegrade and instead accumulate in the environment and our bodies over time, creating a hazard to human health. Peer-reviewed <a target="_blank" href="https://www.epa.gov/pfas/our-current-understanding-human-health-and-environmental-risks-pfas">studies have linked</a> them to some cancers, decreased fertility, reduced vaccine response, high cholesterol, and developmental delays in children."It is easily the most consequential and difficult decision to protect drinking water in the past 30 years," Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, told reporters.He added that the watchdog group started researching PFAS more than two decades ago and found PFAS everywhere they tested, including in umbilical cord blood.The chemicals were originally developed in the 1940s to make non-stick cookware, and then exploded in use in clothing, carpets, food packaging, and firefighting foam used by airports and military bases to put out jet-fuel fires. Companies that make PFAS also dumped the chemical into waterways, landfills, and unlined pits in states like North Carolina and Minnesota.EPA Administrator Michael Regan is announcing the new limits in drinking water in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where residents in 2017 learned a river was heavily contaminated with PFAS pollution from a manufacturing plant owned by Chemours, and DuPont before it."This action will prevent thousands of deaths and reduce tens of thousands of serious illnesses," Regan told reporters, citing EPA estimates about the impact of the drinking water limits.There are thousands of different types of PFAS manufactured today. The EPA is regulating six of them based on research linking them to harm and showing they are prevalent in drinking water, David Andrews, deputy director of investigations and senior scientists at EWG, told BI.They include PFOA and PFOS that persist in waterways and the environment, despite being phased out of production in the US since the 2000s. The EPA said these two chemicals effectively aren't safe at any level, but the lowest level modern labs can detect in drinking water is 4 parts per trillion — the limit the agency set.The limit for several other chemicals is 10 parts per trillion. EPA also set limits for mixtures of two or more PFAS chemicals, because research shows they may have combined health impacts.States and local water officials will have five years to comply with the new limits: Three to test PFAS levels; and if they exceed the federal limits, another two years to install technology that cleans up the water. The administration is making $1 billion available in grants for public water systems and private well owners to install treatment technology.Senior administration officials said they expect up to 10% of the 66,000 water systems in the US will have to take steps to comply. That means the vast majority won't detect PFAS levels beyond the new limits. But this is just an estimate, they added. The first three years of sampling will indicate the real scope of the problem."The technology is there, especially to clean up drinking water, to filter these compounds out of the water. So it becomes a question of cost and political feasibility," Andrews previously told BI."The agency has known about the harms that these chemicals can cause for decades," he added. "For too long, many people across the country have had been drinking contaminated water levels that likely impact health."The Biden administration has a broader $9 billion PFAS strategy that goes beyond drinking water, including military bases, airports, and food packaging.The FDA <a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/food/cfsan-constituent-updates/fda-announces-pfas-used-grease-proofing-agents-food-packaging-no-longer-being-sold-us">in February said</a> paper food packaging — like fast-food wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, and take-out pizza boxes — is no longer being made with certain kinds of grease-proofing PFAS. The voluntary phase-out eliminated the main source of exposure from our diets, the agency said. Still, there are lingering stocks of packaging that contain PFAS that could take months to be exhausted.Some scientists told BI that while these are important steps, they aren't enough to control PFAS contamination."It's better than no regulation, but it's really just a Band Aid solution to the entire problem," Carmen Messerlian, a professor of reproductive environmental epidemiology at Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health, who studies PFAS, said. "We should regulate the entire class of chemicals and stop companies from manufacturing them to begin with, rather than try to regulate how much is in our water."Correction: April 10, 2024: An earlier version of this article misspelled Carmen Messerlian's last name.

Your drinking water could contain fewer hazardous 'forever chemicals' under new federal rules

<keyword id="55910" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Air-Pollution" source="Orion">Air pollution</keyword> is a pressing global issue that affects both developed and developing nations. Using data from the IQAir 2022 World Air Quality Ranking we will examine the <keyword id="19039904" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="most-polluted-countries-in-the-world" source="Orion">most polluted countries in the world</keyword> from 2018 to 2022, shedding light on the sources of <keyword id="13001" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pollution" source="Orion">pollution</keyword> and the impacts on public health and the environment. 1. Chad Chad tops the list as one of the <keyword id="13437378" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="most-polluted-countries" source="Orion">most polluted countries</keyword>, with alarming levels of particulate matter (PM2.5). The sources of pollution primarily stem from various factors, including industrial activities and vehicular emissions. 2. Iraq Iraq is the second most polluted country on our list. The rise in air pollution can be attributed to increased industrial activities and a growing number of vehicles on the road. 3. Pakistan Pakistan has consistently faced severe air pollution, and the data indicates fluctuations in pollution levels. Major sources of pollution include vehicular emissions, industrial discharges, and crop burning. 4. Bahrain Bahrain, despite its small size, faces significant air pollution challenges primarily due to industrial activities and oil refineries. The government has initiated measures to combat this issue. 5. Bangladesh Bangladesh has been grappling with air pollution, mainly driven by vehicular emissions, industrial pollution, and construction activities. The health impacts are severe, leading to respiratory diseases and other health issues. 6. Burkina Faso Burkina Faso, with limited available data, experiences air pollution challenges. The lack of comprehensive data makes it difficult to identify specific sources of pollution. 7. Kuwait Kuwait's air quality is affected by factors such as industrial activities, oil refineries, and construction dust. The hot and arid climate exacerbates pollution issues, leading to health problems. 8. India India, with its rapid urbanization and industrialization, has faced significant air pollution challenges. Major cities like New Delhi often experience hazardous air quality due to vehicular emissions, industrial discharges, and construction activities. 9. Egypt Egypt's air quality is affected by emissions from vehicles and industrial activities. The political situation in the country has hindered environmental regulations and enforcement. 10. Tajikistan Tajikistan has faced fluctuations in air pollution levels, driven by factors such as vehicular emissions and industrial activities. The lack of consistent data makes it challenging to track long-term trends. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Impact on Health and the Environment" comment="subhead" text="Impact on Health and the Environment">Impact on Health and the Environment</cmsannotation> The consequences of air pollution in these countries are severe, with a high incidence of respiratory diseases, cardiovascular problems, and other health issues. Long-term exposure to <keyword id="6489235" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Polluted-Air" source="Orion">polluted air</keyword> can lead to more severe conditions such as lung cancer. In addition to its effect on human health, air pollution also damages the environment, including contributing to climate change, impairing ecosystems, and harming agricultural productivity. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Efforts to Combat Pollution" comment="subhead" text="Efforts to Combat Pollution">Efforts to Combat Pollution</cmsannotation> Many of these countries have recognized the urgent need to address air pollution and have taken measures to mitigate its effects. These efforts include improving public transportation, implementing stricter emission standards, and promoting clean energy alternatives. However, challenges such as limited resources, rapid urbanization, and political instability continue to hamper progress. International cooperation and support are crucial in addressing the problem of air pollution. Multilateral agreements and partnerships can help countries access technology, financing, and expertise to combat pollution effectively. Air pollution is a global concern, and the data from 2018 to 2022 highlights the persistent challenges faced by the most <keyword id="19165516" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="polluted-countries" source="Orion">polluted countries</keyword>. These nations must continue their efforts to improve air quality, protect public health, and safeguard the environment. The path to cleaner air involves a combination of government initiatives, international collaboration, and individual actions to reduce emissions and protect the planet for future generations.

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The most common type of EV battery is a growing source of 'forever chemical' pollution, scientists say

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Your drinking water could contain fewer hazardous 'forever chemicals' under new federal rules

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The most polluted countries in the world: A global environmental concern

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