’Forever chemicals’ found in French fertilizer made from sewage

UdeM environmental chemist Sébastien Sauvé and his team analyzed agricultural soil samples in France. Their alarming findings appear today in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. A waterproof coat keeps you dry when it rains, but did you know it can also contaminate the environment? That's because the fabric contains perand polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - so-called "forever chemicals" that take forever to decompose. And now those manmade chemicals are turning up in farmers' fields. Led by Université de Montréal environmental chemist Sébastien Sauvé, researchers have discovered that treated city sewage water used as fertilizer in France actually contains more PFAS than animal manure used to fertilize those same fields. The finding is published today in the American Chemical Society's journal Environmental Science & Technology. Professor Sauvé's team characterized PFASs in past and present organic waste materials spread on agricultural fields in France and found the highest amounts of these substances in urban samples, with the compounds changing over time.