{"id":4525,"date":"2025-04-19T21:44:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T01:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/?p=4525"},"modified":"2025-04-22T01:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T05:45:17","slug":"scearce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/","title":{"rendered":"Lettuce Eat Safely"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Alex Scearce<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.kb-image4525_4f1a6b-6a .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image4525_4f1a6b-6a size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1.jpg\" class=\"kb-advanced-image-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"674\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-674x1024.jpg\" alt=\"Recommended lettuce consumption limit based on PFOS field contamination.\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-4527\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-674x1024.jpg 674w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-768x1167.jpg 768w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-1011x1536.jpg 1011w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-92x140.jpg 92w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-317x482.jpg 317w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-423x643.jpg 423w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-634x963.jpg 634w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-846x1285.jpg 846w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-951x1445.jpg 951w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1.jpg 1131w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,674px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This piece aims to place the scale of PFOS contamination of agricultural soil into context. The data presented here are based on results from a study conducted for&nbsp;my Masters thesis \u201cUptake Takeaways: Soil-to-Crop Movement of Per- and Polyfluoralkyl Substances (PFAS) in a Paired Field and Greenhouse Study\u201d, which took place on a contaminated farm in Unity, Maine. In this study, our team sought to quantify uptake of PFAS from contaminated soil to edible portions of lettuce and two other crops to support farmer and policymaker understandings of&nbsp;the risk associated with farming on contaminated land. This data visualization features the number of lettuce cups that a 70 kg person could safely consume based on what our research taught us about the transfer of PFOS-contaminated soil to lettuce and using health standards set by the European Food Safety Authority (2020). These findings are not recommendations and should not be extrapolated beyond this field setting, as many questions remain about the mechanisms that drive PFAS uptake in a field. Results from this study are under review for publication, but results from the paired greenhouse study may be found here:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Scearce, A. E., MacRae, J. D., Goossen, C. P., Zhang, Y.-J., Holt, K. P., &amp; Schattman, R. E. (2025). Uptake of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) into lettuce (Lactuca sativa), tall fescue (Schedonorus arundinaceus) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum): A greenhouse experiment evaluating bioconcentration factors and testing the effect of intercropping. Environmental Advances, 100629.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.envadv.2025.100629\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.envadv.2025.100629<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Alex Scearce \u00a0 \u00a0 This piece aims to place the scale of PFOS contamination of agricultural soil into context. The data presented here are based on results from a study conducted for&nbsp;my Masters thesis \u201cUptake Takeaways: Soil-to-Crop Movement of Per- and Polyfluoralkyl Substances (PFAS) in a Paired Field and Greenhouse Study\u201d, which took place [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spire-2025-issue"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lettuce Eat Safely - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - University of Maine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lettuce Eat Safely - The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability - University of Maine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Alex Scearce \u00a0 \u00a0 This piece aims to place the scale of PFOS contamination of agricultural soil into context. The data presented here are based on results from a study conducted for&nbsp;my Masters thesis \u201cUptake Takeaways: Soil-to-Crop Movement of Per- and Polyfluoralkyl Substances (PFAS) in a Paired Field and Greenhouse Study\u201d, which took place [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Maine Journal of Conservation and Sustainability\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-04-20T01:44:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-22T05:45:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1131\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1718\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"oolson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"oolson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"oolson\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/#\/schema\/person\/e9ee1e1bb13f61c160edee82b01f82d5\"},\"headline\":\"Lettuce Eat Safely\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-04-20T01:44:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-22T05:45:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/\"},\"wordCount\":251,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/254\/2025\/04\/SPIRE-drawing-final-1-1-674x1024.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Spire 2025 Issue\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/spire\/2025\/04\/19\/scearce\/\",\"name\":\"Lettuce Eat Safely - 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