Northern Light taps UMaine researcher for latest podcast on PFAS

Farms in Maine have been identified as critical places to study the health effects of a group of chemicals known as PFAS. Ellen Mallory, one of many University of Maine faculty members working together on a variety of PFAS research projects, sat down with Tim Doak, chief environmental sustainability officer at Northern Light Health (NLH), in the latest episode of “Healthy, Happy, & Wise,” a podcast series from NLH. 

Titled “PFAS on Maine Farms: How Agricultural Research is Helping Farmers, Our Food, and Our Health,” Mallory, professor in the School of Food and Agriculture and University of Maine Cooperative Extension specialist, discussed how these chemicals move through soil, crops and livestock and what that means for the state’s farming communities.

“We are very concerned about the health risks for farmers and for farm workers, because of where they work and where they live, they’re exposed to more PFAS,” Mallory said.

Her work on how the PFAS compound perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) accumulates in livestock feed was recently awarded one of five grants from the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry PFAS Fund.

More information on these chemicals is available through UMaine Extension, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.