Dr Andrea Hinwood
Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria
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Transcript:
00:02 What are PFAS, or Per- and poly-fluoroalkylated substances?
They’re a large group of manufactured chemicals. Many industrial and household products contain PFAS, including carpets, clothes and non-stick cookware. Fire-fighting foams in particular have contained PFAS.
00:19 What do we know about PFAS in the Victorian environment?
We generally find very low levels of PFAS in the environment in Victoria. Sometimes we will see higher PFAS levels at sites where products containing PFAS, like firefighting foams, have been used.
Most of us have got low levels of PFAS in our blood. PFAS usually enters our body by eating, it’s the most common source. At very low levels we generally see in Victoria, this is unlikely to be harmful.
00:49 What is EPA’s position on PFAS? While scientific research continues, consistent with federal guidelines from the Environmental Health Standing Committee, known as enHealth, EPA takes a precautionary approach. We advise everyone to reduce their exposure to PFAS. We also recommend that people follow EPA’s health advice for specific locations, which are published on our website.
01:12 What are we doing to better understand how PFAS affects human health?
There’s lots of research going on into the potential health effects of PFAS around the world and we’re keeping up to date with that. The Australian Government has commissioned the Australian National University to undertake an epidemiological study at several sites across Australia.
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