Landmark US study reveals sewage sludge and wastewater plants tied to Pfas pollution
A first-of-its-kind study tested rivers bordering 32 sewage sludge sites, including wastewater treatment plants and fields where the substance is spread as fertilizer – it found concerning levels of Pfas around all but one.
The study is the first to sample water up- and downstream from sites, and to test around the country. It found the levels downstream were higher for at least one Pfas compound 95% of the time, suggesting that the sludge sites are behind the increased pollution levels.
'We have an indication of very widespread problems and significant exposures that people are going to be facing,' said Kelly Hunter Foster, an environmental attorney with the Waterkeeper Alliance, which conducted the study.
Pfas are a class of about 15,000 compounds that are dubbed 'forever chemicals' because they do not naturally break down, and accumulate in the human body and environment. The chemicals are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol, birth defects and decreased immunity.
Sludge is a mix of human and industrial waste that is a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process. Its disposal is expensive, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows it to be spread on cropland as 'biosolid' fertilizer because it is also rich in plant nutrients.
But public health advocates have blasted the practice because the nation spends billions of dollars annually treating water only to take the toxic byproduct, insert it into the food supply and re-pollute water.
Wastewater treatment plants' effluent, or allegedly clean water that they spit back into water systems, often contain high levels of Pfas.
Most of the levels far exceeded the EPA's draft guidance for Pfas in surface waters, which is as low as 0.0009 parts per trillion for PFOA, one of the most common and dangerous types of compounds.
The authors looked at water in 19 states, and found the highest levels in Detroit's Rouge River, which showed 44ppt of PFOA; North Carolina's Haw River; South Carolina's Pocotaligo River and Maryland's Potomac River.
The largest increase around a wastewater plant was found in the Rouge River, where Detroit's mammoth facility spits Pfas-tainted effluent. The chemicals' levels jumped by 146% to about 80ppt for all Pfas. The Pocotaligo, Haw, and Santa Ana River in southern California saw similar spikes.
The largest increase around a field on which sewage sludge was spread was found in the Dragoon Creek near Spokane, Washington, where total Pfas levels jumped from about 0.63 ppt to about 33ppt, an increase of over 5,100%.
The EPA has long resisted calls to ban the spreading of sewage sludge on agricultural fields, though a 2024 lawsuit that alleges Clean Water Act violations could force some regulatory action. The Trump administration has scrapped the rulemaking process for industrial discharges of Pfas that Joe Biden's EPA began. That would have forced treatment plants to rein in their pollution.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
The 8 key signs 'puffy-faced' Putin could be hiding a secret illness as he heads to Alaska to meet with Trump
Vladimir Putin will travel to Alaska for a historic summit with Donald Trump amid a growing maelstrom of theories about his health. According to his enemies and hints from Western intelligence services, Putin, 72, is suffering from conditions as minor as restless leg syndrome, or as serious as cancer and Parkinson's disease. His changing appearance has given rise to suggestions that he is being treated with steroids to boost his immune system, and there have been reports of subsequent 'roid rages'. Other theories abound. There is some evidence, although circumstantial, that he has used body doubles, and claims that he has taken to an old Russian practice of bathing in deer antler blood to extend his life. If time is dwindling, it may partly explain Putin's apparent determination to keep fighting in Ukraine. The Kremlin has dismissed all suggestions that the Russian leader is ill as 'hoaxes'. Still, here are eight possible indicators that he is suffering from a secret condition. 1. Jelly legs In November, Putin displayed some bizarre jerky leg movements on a trip to Astana, Kazakhstan. As he spoke at a press conference, he gripped the lectern in front of him as his legs twitched, seemingly uncontrollably. The twitching started with his left foot, and he appeared to take a wider stance to steady himself. Then, both knees started wobbling side to side, and he put his left leg forward before it started jerking up and down. When shown the video, Dr Bob Berookhim, a urologist in New York, told the Daily Mail several culprits could be at play. 'There are a few different things that could lead to movements like this, including Parkinson's disease and other neurological conditions,' he said. 'Based on just a few images and videos that are curated by Russia, it is hard to say what someone is dealing with here, but there may be something more significant going on with him that would tie everything together.' Pressed on whether it could indicate Parkinson's, he said, 'It wouldn't be an isolated thing like that, it would usually be more related to ongoing treatment for that kind of jelly leg movement - a one off means much less.' The 'jelly legs' incident came a month after Putin was seen repeatedly rubbing and scratching his face and neck during an appearance at a fencing center in the city of Ufa. There was similar itching and scratching the previous day in Moscow. 2. Puffy face Putin has, on several occasions in recent years, displayed distinctly puffy facial features. Notably, in November 2023, his face appeared much fuller, leading a senior Ukrainian official to ask, 'What's up with Putin's cheeks?' Bloating around the face and neck can be a sign that someone is being treated with steroids. 'This puffy face could be the look of someone who gets steroid treatments, which could be for a variety of reasons, whether inflammatory conditions, or pain, or part of a treatment for something more significant that could cause him to take on this appearance,' said Dr Berookhim. 'It could also be weight gain. 'For someone his age, steroid treatment could be needed as part of a cancer therapy. Some patients with chronic pain will also use steroids sometimes.' Some doctors have said it could be allergies or a sinus or tooth infection. Others suggested Putin was receiving Botox injections. Being treated with steroids can add to a patient's risk of infection, including coughs and colds, and they can suffer changes to their mood and behavior. One cancer charity has warned that, 'when taken in higher doses, steroids can cause confusion or changes in thinking. This can include having strange or frightening thoughts.' Adding to the theory of steroid use, two weeks before Putin invaded Ukraine, he met with French president Emmanuel Macron. An aide to Macron said Putin seemed 'different' and had 'gone haywire'. 3. Alleged meetings with cancer doctors The theory that Putin has been treated by cancer specialists stems mainly from a 2022 report by the Russian investigative outlet Proekt, which looked at trips the Russian president took to his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. By cross-referencing the dates with bookings at nearby hotels, it reported that an oncology surgeon specializing in thyroid cancer had visited 35 times and spent 166 days there. Two ear, nose and throat specialists were there even more often, according to the report. Typically, specialists diagnose thyroid problems before an oncologist is called in. In 2019 Putin was said to have had an average of nine doctors with him, including and intensive care specialist, an anesthetist and a neurosurgeon. The Kremlin dismissed the report as 'fiction and untruth'. Then, in 2022, an unverified recording emerged of what was said to be a Russian oligarch, who was secretly recorded saying Putin was 'very ill with blood cancer'. The recording also suggested he had undergone back surgery in 2022. 4. Western intelligence hints In February 2022 Marco Rubio, then a senator, dropped a heavy hint there may be something wrong with Putin. At the time, Rubio was part of the 'Gang of Eight' members of Congress with access to extremely sensitive classified intelligence. He said, Putin 'appears to have some neurophysiological health issues.' 'I wish I could share more, but for now, I can say it's pretty obvious to many that something is off with Putin,' he said at the time. 'He has always been a killer, but his problem now is different and significant. 'But most telling is this is a man who has long prided himself on emotional control. His recent flashes of anger is very uncharacteristic and show an erosion in impulse control.' In June of that year, Biden national security officials leaked information suggesting that Putin had recently undergone cancer treatment. 'There has been an identifiable change in his decision-making over the past five years or so,' a Kremlin security official told the Daily Mail at the time. 'Those around him see a marked change in the cogency and clarity of what he says and how he perceives the world around him.' 5. 'Bathing in reindeer blood' Unconfirmed reports have emerged that Putin took up the practice of bathing in blood taken from reindeer antlers. He was said to have been introduced to the practice by his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu. Putin would not be the first Russian to adopt the practice of bathing in - or drinking - deer blood. It is believed to have benefits for the cardiovascular system and skin. Reindeer farms in Siberia make 'antler broth' for bathing, and also sell antler blood in pill form, creams and alcoholic beverages. When asked whether bathing in deer's blood could boost health, one radiologist told the Daily Mail, 'Nope, no comment, but that seems absurd to me.' 6. Body double claims In March 2025 claims spread that Putin had sent a doppelganger on a visit to the front line in the Kursk region. Photographs from the event showed him with a noticeably thinner body and face. It was also noticeable that he used handwritten notes, rather than Putin's usual printed ones, and they were smaller than the president's normal large type. Japanese AI researchers have claimed there are two regular doubles used by Putin. They analyzed his speeches to see if the voices matched each other, and used facial recognition technology. It was found that there was only a 53 percent facial similarity between the Putin at a Red Square parade in May 2023, and the Putin pictured on the Crimean Bridge in December 2022. The Putin at the 2023 parade showed only a 40 percent match to the Putin who visited Mariupol and talked to residents two months before. Similarity between the Crimean Bridge Putin, and the one in Mariupol was only 18 percent. Speculation about doubles has led to wild conspiracy theories that Putin could already have died, and been replaced by a doppelganger. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman said the theory 'belongs to the category of absurd information hoaxes that a whole series of media discuss with enviable tenacity. This evokes nothing but a smile.' A reporter for the Russian news agency TASS subsequently asked Putin in February 2020: 'Are you real?' Putin replied 'Yes' but added that it had been suggested by his security officials. 'I declined these body doubles,' he added at the time. 'This was during the most difficult periods of the fight against terrorism.' 7. The long tables Putin's behavior during the pandemic led to suggestions that he could have a vulnerable immune system. While it seemed reasonable to keep him relatively isolated, the isolation measures seemed drastic. Visiting dignitaries who were going to meet Putin had to spend up to two weeks quarantining in hotels, and there were reports of officials having to be sprayed with disinfectant before going into his office. When Macron visited, Putin made him sit at the other end of a 13-foot table. Putin's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was also forced to sit a similar distance away. And when Putin met with his top officials they all had to sit on the other side of a cavernous hall. If he was taking drugs for a serious illness that suppressed his immune system, then the precautions would have seemed more explainable, experts say, as they would have left him more vulnerable to a serious coronavirus infection. 8. Rush to conquer Ukraine Putin's decision to go all in with his invasion of Ukraine has led to speculation that he decided to accelerate his timeline due to health concerns. He has compared himself to Peter the Great, the 18th-century Russian tsar, linking their shared desire to conquer. Putin's expansion had previously played out over long periods - in 2008 he invaded Georgia, and then in 2014 Crimea - and he could potentially be president of Russia until 2036, following changes to the constitution. Many in the West expected him to make what President Biden once called 'minor incursions' into Ukraine, hoping there would be no consequences. But instead of a so-called 'salami' approach, taking small slices, he chose to launch a highly risky full-scale invasion.
The Guardian
14 hours ago
- The Guardian
Trump cuts to science research threaten his administration's own AI action plan
The Trump administration released 'America's AI Action Plan' last month with the goal of expanding US dominance when it comes to AI in order to maintain a global edge, especially over China. But Donald Trump's cuts to scientific research funding through federal agencies – including the National Intitute Health, the National Science Foundation, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Nasa – will undermine that goal and threaten the research environment that fostered the foundations of AI, experts in the field said. Mark Histed, chief of neural computation and behavior at NIH, said that while the effects of funding cuts on AI might not be obvious in the next year or two, they threaten 'the whole ecosystem that we have built around AI, that has been created by federal support'. 'What I see is an ecosystem, right? I see multiple different disciplines contributing different aspects to this process. I see academia playing a key role and industry playing a key role. And so as we look forward and we think about trying to advance AI, we need to be supporting that entire ecosystem,' Rebecca Willett, a computer science professor at the University of Chicago and faculty director of AI at the Data Science Institute, explained, echoing Histed. Histed and Willett both believe that AI simply would not exist in its current form without federally funded research, and offered a variety of AI technologies and companies that owe their development to federal funding. For example, self-driving cars rely on computer vision technology – federal funding has supported its development since the 1980s. Computer vision is the foundation for the vast majority of face and image recognition technologies. AlphaFold, which uses AI to help discover new medications, and Anthropic, which improves AI safety, including for the US Department of Defense, also exists thanks to federal support. AI research often takes cues from other realms of science, which in turn can help foster AI, so cuts to other disciplines will affect the intelligence's development. Histed points to the overlap between his field of neuroscience and AI. 'We're just at the beginning of understanding how networks of connected neurons create functions like memory and cognition. And if you look at a machine learning network or an AI network, that is also the case,' he said. Histed pointed out that federally funded research that brings these disciplines together has led to Nobel prize-winning work. Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield won the 2024 Nobel prize in physics for their work at the intersection of neuroscience and AI, and received support from the NSF. Trump's plan could also pose a threat to AI safety, which is essential to ensuring that AI is not only effective but that it operates within the boundaries of the law. The plan includes provisions to revise guidelines at the National Institute of Standards and Technology 'to eliminate references to misinformation, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and climate change'. These are three of the most controversial aspects of AI, which has been demonstrated to show gender and racial bias in a variety of applications, including face recognition technology and popular applications like ChatGPT. A recent study found that ChatGPT advises women to ask for less money than men when prompted for advice about salary expectations. Histed says that the field of AI safety is also closely linked with neuroscience, because understanding how human neural networks create bias can also help us understand how AI networks create bias. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion Trump's plan also calls for less red tape when it comes to building AI datacentres that can suck up huge amounts of energy. Willett said it was true that large-scale machine learning systems 'come at an enormous cost. It's a huge amount of energy, a huge amount of cooling.' But, she added, AI companies themselves should still want to reduce those costs regardless of what Trump's plan says. 'Not only do they have environmental impacts, but it's expensive for the companies that are running these systems. And so I think across the AI community, people are invested in trying to make these systems more efficient,' Willett said. Willett and Histed both say that the AI community will be under threat in the coming years if the federal government no longer funds their training at universities. Histed noted that the federally funded 'talent pipeline' is 'incredibly important', adding 'we train lots and lots and lots of people in neuroscience and related fields that are going directly to these tech companies. There's tons of overlap. All the people who are leading the technical side of the AI revolution have had contact with the academic world that trained them and is supported by US federal funding. 'One of the big ways in which tech companies benefit from universities is that we train students, right?' Willett said. 'And so they walk into these companies with cutting-edge skills that these companies need. And so right off the bat, I think universities are playing an essential role that's important to industry.'
Metro
16 hours ago
- Metro
Cost of Mounjaro weight-loss drug to go up by 170% in the UK within weeks
The manufacturers of a new weight-loss drug recently rolled out by the NHS are upping their prices by 170%. Eli Lilly is increasing the price of Mounjaro, which is also used to treat type 2 diabetes, in the UK from September. It comes amid a White House push to get drug makers to raise their prices overseas in order to cut prices in the US. The price for a month's supply of the highest dose of Mounjaro, a 15mg KwikPen, will increase from £122 to £330. The cost of a 2.5mg pen, the lowest dose available, will rise from £92 to £133 from September 1. This means the annual cost of the 15mg dose will increase from £1,586 a year to £4,290. This higher price will affect anyone in the UK who pays for the medicine privately. However, it doesn't impact those who are prescribed the medicine through the NHS, as these prices were set with a separate deal, a Lilly spokesperson said. The manufacturer said it agreed to a list price 'significantly below' others in Europe to prevent delaying Mounjaro's availability on the NHS. 'We are now aligning the list price more consistently,' Lilly said. Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association, told the Daily Mail: 'We are shocked and very disappointed by this huge more than doubling of the wholesale cost of Mounjaro by the manufacturer Eli Lilly. 'British patients must not become pawns in a wider dispute about the costs of medicines arising from President Trump's recent letter to the US drug manufacturers.' Mounjaro was launched in the UK in February 2024, compared to rival Novo Nordisk's Wegovy treatment which has been available since September 2023. Lilly said it was working with private UK healthcare providers to ensure patients can keep accessing the medicine and potentially negotiate discounts which could be passed on to customers. The manufacturer also said clinical research had proved the effectiveness of the Mounjaro injections, saying the drug had demonstrated its 'value'. Known as tirzepatide and marketed under the brand name Mounjaro, the drug injection helps people to manage blood sugar. It works in a similar way to semaglutide – sold as Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus – which are in the same family of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonist medications. Administered by weekly injections, tirzepatide changes hormone levels in the body to slow down how fast food is digested. This make you feel more full, for longer, on less food. Alongside healthy eating and exercise, this can help people lose weight. But there are pros and cons to taking the weight-loss drug, including some side effects. Short-term: Sickness and nausea Indigestion & heartburn Constipation Diarrhoea Headaches Injection site reactions (redness, bruising, tenderness, swelling) Gallstones and pancreatitis (in rare instances) Positive impacts on heart health (in some instances) Long-term: Weight loss Muscle mass reduction Slower metabolism Insulin resistance A spokesperson for Lilly said: 'Following a review, Lilly will increase the UK list price for Mounjaro (tirzepatide) from September 1 to address pricing inconsistencies compared to other developed countries, including in Europe. 'In parallel, we have reached an agreement with the NHS to ensure continued supply and patient access. 'While Lilly does not determine the prices that private healthcare providers set, we are working with them to maintain patient access. 'The UK was one of the first countries where Lilly launched Mounjaro, and our priority was to bring it to patients as quickly as possible during a time of limited supply of GLP-1 RA treatments for type 2 diabetes. 'At launch, Lilly agreed to a UK list price that is significantly below the European average to prevent delays in NHS availability. 'With changes in the environment and new clinical evidence supporting the value of Mounjaro, we are now aligning the list price more consistently to ensure fair global contributions to the cost of innovation.' The US pays more for prescription drugs than any other country, often nearly three times as much as other developed nations. More Trending President Donald Trump says he wants to narrow this gap to stop Americans from being 'ripped off'. An NHS England spokesperson said: 'Licensed, cost-effective weight loss medication, such as tirzepatide (Mounjaro) provides a valuable tool to support people to reach a healthier weight and the wider health and lifestyle benefits that offers. 'The approved list price increase will not affect NHS commissioning of tirzepatide in England for eligible people living with obesity, based on clinical priority, or as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. 'Anyone with questions about their private tirzepatide prescription should contact their private provider.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Chikungunya cases double in UK as expert warns 'all it takes is one mosquito bite' MORE: What is AI psychosis? The rise in people thinking chatbots are real or godlike MORE: Man, 60, gave himself rare condition after going to ChatGPT for diet advice
