Landfills across the US ‘burp’ toxic gases in the air as waste decomposes, introducing a flood of airborne forever chemicals into the atmosphere and poisoning the air we breathe.
Forever chemicals, named so because they can survive in the environment and the human body for months or even years, are known to increase risks of thyroid, kidney, and testicular cancers, heart disease, and liver damage.
The chemicals, also known as PFAS, are ubiquitous. They have permeated the water and food supplies. They line food wrappers, nonstick cookware, and water-repellant clothing, make up firefighting foam, and make certain clothes stain-resistant.
Researchers tested the air around three landfill sites in Florida that had been filled with PFAS-laden decomposing food, clothing, cosmetics, and wastewater sludge.
They found 13 different types of forever chemicals were circulating in gas emitted, polluting the surrounding air and potentially harming anyone breathing it in even miles away.
Researchers from Yale University and the University of Florida already knew water drains through waste material in a landfill and leaches into groundwater and surface water sources. This is known as leachate.
They aimed to understand how this PFAS-laden water seepage compares to the composition and mobility of PFAS in the toxic gases emitted from landfills. Once PFAS enters the air, it can spread widely, even across continents.
Researchers worked to determine which pathway — leachate or landfill gas — contributes more significantly to the release of PFAS from landfills.
They went to three different sites in Florida and erected air pumps to draw out gas.
The pump contained a cartridge filled with resin that traps compounds floating in the air. They then took those cartridges to the lab to isolate the compounds trapped in the resin.
Burped gas is mostly made up of methane and carbon dioxide, but these scientists also discovered the gas was full of forever chemicals.
Most of the PFAS they found belonged to a class of compounds called fluorotelomer alcohols. Like other PFAS compounds, fluorotelomer alcohols have a high fluorine content, which allows them to remain in the environment for months or years.
The concentration of fluorine in landfill gas ranged from 32 to 76 percent of the total mass of PFAS, compared to 24 to 68 percent in landfill leachate.
Even under conservative assumptions, the mass of PFAS leaving via landfill gas was comparable to or greater than that of leachate.
Researchers installed air pumps at landfill sites to collect PFAS-laden gas
According to the researchers: ‘These findings suggest that landfill gas, a less scrutinized byproduct, serves as a major pathway for the mobility of PFAS from landfills.’
Landfill leachate, the liquid that drains from landfills, is typically collected and treated to prevent further contamination in the environment. However, landfill gas, which, includes methane and PFAS, is released into the atmosphere untreated and uncontrolled.
The study suggests that while pollution mitigation efforts typically focus on PFAS in the drinking water supply, the gas released from these mass disposal sites should be included in future plans to reduce exposure to the chemicals.
Some landfills burn these gases or capture them for energy, but researchers argue these methods may not be effective at removing airborne contaminants.
PFAS pose a laundry list of health risks ranging from cancer to organ damage. The chemicals lodge themselves in bodily tissue where they can survive without breaking down for more than seven years.
In 2023, doctors from Mount Sinai hospital in New York tested blood samples from people with and without thyroid cancer and found patients with the disease were 56 percent more likely to have levels of PFAS chemicals in their system.
PFAS also cause inflammation in the body, leading to DNA damage in thyroid cells. This can result in genetic mutations that drive the creation of cancer cells.
Meanwhile, researchers from the University of California San Francisco, University of Southern California and University of Michigan showed that women with a higher exposure to PFAS were twice as likely to report a previous melanoma diagnosis than women in the lowest group of exposure to the chemicals.
The study also found a link between PFAS and a past diagnosis of uterine cancer and women with higher exposure also had a marginal increase in odds of previous ovarian cancer.
And PFAS can wreak havoc on the body’s balance of hormones that govern fertility and reproduction.
American and Singaporean researchers reported last year that women with several types of PFAS in their blood who were trying to conceive had an up to 40 percent lower chance of getting pregnant and delivering a live baby.
The results of the experiment were published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters.
