What is the problem/issue being addressed?
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of more than 10,000 synthetic organic chemicals used in industrial processes and consumer products (e.g. textiles, non-stick cookware, food packaging, personal care products, paints, etc.). PFAS are highly persistent and often called “forever chemicals”, due to a lack of any observable degradation in the environment. PFAS are ubiquitous in the environment, wildlife, and humans. Exposure to many of the chemicals in this class has been associated with diverse health effects such as reduced vaccination efficiency in children, increased cholesterol, reduced duration of breastfeeding, and increased risk of kidney and testicular cancers. The extent of contamination and the health risks that the many substances in the PFAS class pose to humans and the environment are still being understood and just beginning to be addressed from a regulatory context. Even if all production and emissions of PFAS stopped tomorrow, these chemicals would still persist in the environment, and cause human and environmental health effects, for generations to come.
Why is it important for society?
Addressing the PFAS pollution problem is important to protect public health, preserve the environment, and reduce the economic burden on society. The costs associated with PFAS pollution are significant and include healthcare costs due to related illnesses, legal costs, monitoring costs, and the expenses involved in cleaning up the many PFAS-contaminated sites. In Europe alone, the costs are estimated to be in the tens of billions of Euros annually. PERFORCE3 provides comprehensive training for 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) creating a new generation of highly skilled researchers valuable for the European market. PERFORCE3 thus contributes to the knowledge-based economy and societal sustainability by addressing well-defined research and training needs and developing new tools and technologies.
What are the overall objectives?
PERFORCE3 is a collaborative doctoral research training network involving multiple partners, aimed at educating 15 ESRs, enhancing the current understanding of PFAS, and developing innovative solutions to PFAS contamination issues. The project has six specific research objectives and five training objectives. The research objectives are: developing novel analytical techniques for human matrices and relevant exposure media, improving understanding of human exposure pathways, assessing and understanding the toxicological properties of alternative and legacy PFAS, assessing the nature and extent of human exposure to legacy and alternative PFAS and associated health effects, developing new solutions to PFAS contamination problems, and communicating the PERFORCE3 research results to the scientific community, policy-makers, stakeholders, and the general public. The training objectives are: providing an optimum learning environment through exposure to multidisciplinary research on PFAS, fostering the individual careers of the ESRs by providing a broad scientific training, providing the ESRs opportunities for multi-partner collaboration through targeted visits and secondments, providing complementary training in transferable skills, and providing the ESRs with lifetime skills and optimum opportunities to extend their personal international collaborative network.
