Understanding how chemicals contaminate water

Environmental experts from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Rhode Island (URI) are teaming up to learn more about chemicals that have contaminated water at sites across the U.S.

Harvard Chan School’s Philippe Grandjean and Elsie Sunderland, along with colleagues from URI, are collaborating on a new research center to focus on perfluorinated chemicals, which have been linked with cancer and other illnesses but are not currently regulated in drinking water. Found in many household products and in firefighting foam, these chemicals have contaminated water near industrial facilities and military bases.

The research center is being funded by a new five-year, $8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The aim is to better understand how perfluorinated chemicals get into water supplies and into the food chain, and how they affect people and animals.

Grandjean, adjunct professor of environmental health, has conducted studies suggesting that infants are exposed to perfluorinated chemicals through breast milk, and that the chemicals may adversely affect immune system development and reduce the effectiveness of vaccines.

Sunderland, associate professor of environmental science and engineering in the Department of Environmental Health, wants to know more about how the geochemistry of an area affects how far the chemicals can travel from their source, and how to better discern what those sources are.

Grandjean and Sunderland are working with Rainer Lohmann, an environmental chemist with the URI Graduate School of Oceanography.

Read a U.S. News & World Report article: Researchers to Study Chemical Contamination of US Waters

Learn more

Unsafe levels of toxic chemicals found in drinking water for six million Americans (Harvard Chan School release)

Breastfeeding may expose infants to toxic chemicals (Harvard Chan School release)