PFAS Roundtable
Sponsored by: Interstate Technology and Regulatory Council
Archived: Thursday, June 10, 2021
This fourth PFAS Roundtable Session offers a unique opportunity to interact directly with experts from the ITRC PFAS Team from around the country on several topics: Human and Ecological Health Effects, Site Risk Assessment, Regulations, Risk Communication and Stakeholder Perspectives. Participants are requested to submit questions in advance of the event to be addressed during this extended Question and Answer discussion with expert panelists. The session is intended to be tailored to the specific needs of its participants, with the expectation that the participant will have a basic understanding of these topics prior to attending the Roundtable Session.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) constitute a large family of fluorinated chemicals, exceeding several thousand in commercial use or the environment that vary widely in their chemical and physical properties. The persistence and mobility of some PFAS, combined with decades of widespread use in industrial processes, certain types of firefighting foams, and consumer products, have resulted in their being present in most environmental media at trace levels across the globe. PFAS have only recently come to the attention of investigators and the public in large part due to the fact that until the early 2000s analytical methods to detect low levels of PFAS in the environment were available only in a few select research institutions. It was not until the early 2010s that these methods to detect a limited number of PFAS became widely available and had detection limits in water low enough to be commensurate with levels of potential human health effects. Toxicological studies have raised concerns regarding the bioaccumulative nature and potential health concerns of some PFAS. As a result, our understanding of PFAS and the risks they may pose is rapidly evolving.
This Roundtable Session is based on the following ITRC-produced resources:
- A series of fact sheets that synthesize key information about PFAS science. In particular for this webinar, the Regulations fact sheet, the Human and Ecological Health Effects and Risk Assessment fact sheet, the Risk Communication fact sheet, and the Stakeholder Perspectives fact sheet are available resources. The fact sheets were published in 2020.
- A web-based technical and regulatory guidance document published by the ITRC PFAS Team in April 2020 that presents the necessary breadth and depth not given by the fact sheets, stakeholder points of view, technical challenges and uncertainties, risk communication strategies, and provides links to pertinent scientific literature. Limited small changes and some references were added to the document in September 2020 to address a range of quickly changing topics. In 2021, ITRC plans to update the technical and regulatory guidance document with new information and regulatory approaches that become available to address the evolving understanding of these contaminants. The document is supported by external files, including a regularly updated tabular summary of PFAS water and soil values used by various regulatory agencies across the United States.
- Online training materials that convey the information presented in the technical and regulatory guidance document. Ten video training modules and brief introductory videos on the topics are posted on ITRC's YouTube channel. Additionally, the Team provided in-person training workshops to approximately 2,550 attendees through March 2020. In 2020 an additional 500 people attended virtual workshops. In 2021, the Team plans to provide additional online training resources. More information will be available on the ITRC Training page.
- state and federal environmental staff working on PFAS-contaminated sites
- Other project managers and decision makers
- Stakeholders who are involved in community engagement
- PFAS Regulations
- Human and Ecological Health Effects
- Site Risk Assessment
- Risk Communication
- Stakeholder Perspectives
- ITRC PFAS Training Video Module: Team Introduction
- ITRC PFAS Training Video Module: ITRC PFAS Human and Ecological Effects
- ITRC PFAS Training Video Module: ITRC PFAS Risk Assessment and Regulations
- ITRC PFAS Training Video Module: ITRC PFAS Risk Communication
Archives of past Roundtable Sessions and Q&A Digests are available on the ITRC PFAS Roundtable Training page.
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Presenters:
Gloria B. Post, Ph.D., New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) (gloria.post@dep.nj.gov)
Gloria B. Post, Ph.D., D.A.B.T. is a Research Scientist in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) Division of Science and Research. She is a toxicologist with responsibility for human health risk assessment of contaminants found in New Jersey's environment. Since 2006, she has been a member of the NJ Drinking Water Quality Institute, an advisory body that recommends drinking water standards to NJDEP. Dr. Post has focused on the evaluation of PFAS in drinking water for more than 15 years, and she is the first author of five publications (including three critical reviews) and the co-author of three additional publications on this topic. She was a major contributor to the Human Health and Surface Water sections of the Interstate Technology & Regulatory Council (ITRC) PFAS Technical and Regulatory Document the Environmental Council of the States (ECOS) white paper on states' regulatory standards for PFAS, and she served on the National Academy of Sciences Planning Committee for the Workshop on Federal Human Health PFAS Research. She has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology since 1990. Dr. Post holds an A.B. with honors in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University, with post-doctoral research at Duke University.
Kevin Long, M.S., Terraphase Engineering Inc (kevin.long@terraphase.com)
Kevin Long, M.S. is a Principal Consultant in Terraphase Engineering Inc's Princeton, NJ office. He has more than two decades of experience in applying risk assessment and risk management strategies to support remedial action and closure of sites across the country. His work has included sites that have required the evaluation of unique exposure scenarios or exposure to complex and emerging chemicals, including PFAS. He has been a member of ITRC since 2011 and has supported the development of technical guidance and training regarding site risk assessment, bioavailability of contaminants in soil, and PFAS. Kevin earned BS and MS degrees, both in Civil and Environmental Engineering, from Princeton University in Princeton, NJ.
Chris McCarthy, M.S., Jacobs (chris.mccarthy@jacobs.com)
Chris McCarthy, M.S. is a nationally recognized ecological risk assessment expert with 24 years of experience. Chris has led risk assessments at sites around the U.S., Australia, Canada, and France. He directs teams in evaluating the likelihood and magnitude of adverse effects to human and non-human biota exposed to contaminants at hazardous waste sites and working with engineers on risk management strategies. Chris has been actively engaged in the thought leadership for PFAS ecotoxicity related work, leading toxicity studies with PFAS, and leading PFAS risk assessments at sites through the US and Australia. Chris regularly presents updates and gives training on the ecotoxicity and risk assessment of PFAS to audiences around the world. Chris is also an active member of the ITRC PFAS team including the regulations, toxicity, risk assessment, and surface water criteria subgroups. Chris earned a BS in Water Resources Management from University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Biology from Minnesota State University.
Linda C. Hall, Ph.D. (lindachall@comcast.net)
Linda C. Hall, Ph.D., is an environmental toxicologist based in California's San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a MS degree in Toxicology from California State University, San Jose and a PhD in Ecological Toxicology from University of California, Davis. She has actively followed the emerging science of PFAS toxicology and is in her fourth year as co-lead for the PFAS Regulations, Toxicity, and Risk Assessment Writing Subgroup for the Interstate Technology Regulatory Council (ITRC) PFAS Team. In that role, she coordinates, edits, and contributes to technical guidance on the human health, ecological toxicology, regulations, and risk assessment of PFAS. Dr. Hall's practice has focused on the toxicology and regulation of PFAS for many years. During that time, she has worked as a technical expert in toxicology on PFAS litigations involving aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) contamination of drinking water; PFAS manufacturing releases to air and water at multiple sites, and the food chain transfer and potential health effects of PFAS in crops grown on soils amended with biosolids. She is a frequent presenter on PFAS at conferences and seminars. Prior to working as an environmental consultant, Dr. Hall was a Principal Investigator (PI) and co-PI for at the University of California and at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Peter M. Strauss, M.S., PM Strauss and Associates (petestrauss1@comcast.net)
Peter M. Strauss, M.S. is the sole proprietor of PM Strauss and Associates. With over 40 years of consulting experience, he has a demonstrated history of working with non-profit community organizations on RCRA, CERCLA and Brownfields projects for environmental remediation issues. Peter has been an active member and stakeholder lead in the ITRC PFAS team. Peter received an MS in Environmental Studies from State University of New York College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry.
Kerry Kirk Pflugh, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (kerry.pflugh@dep.nj.gov)
Kerry Kirk Pflugh is the Director for Local Government at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. She is the department's liaison between New Jersey's 565 Mayors, 21 counties and the 75 programs in DEP. She is responsible for troubleshooting, helping officials navigate the agency and identify the correct programs and people to resolve problems. She is also responsible for facilitating meetings between officials and agency personnel. Ms. Pflugh's area of expertise is strategic communication planning focusing on citizen participation in environmental management decision-making. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: Cabinet Liaison of the Year, New Jersey Conference of Mayors, April, 2019;
George Hammell Cook Distinguished Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement in Professional and Civic Endeavors, April 2017; and The Elizabeth River/Arthur Kill Watershed Association Appreciation Award, October 2016. Kerry earned a BA in Environmental Communication, Cook College, Rutgers University and an MS in Agricultural Journalism University of Wisconsin-Madison. Kerry is a co-lead for the ITRC PFAS Team Risk Communication writing subgroup.
Moderators:
Nicole Henderson, ITRC Contractor (nicole.henderson@hmenviro.com)
Kate Emma Schlosser, NH Dept. of Environmental Services (kateemma.schlosser@des.nh.gov)
Kate Emma A. Schlosser, P.E. serves as the supervisor of the Emerging Contaminants Section of the NH Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) Hazardous Waste Remediation Bureau, and currently focuses her work on investigation and response actions for PFAS contaminated sites. Prior to joining the NHDES in 2016, Kate Emma worked in private consulting for 15 years, where her experience included environmental site assessment, remedial actions, and brownfields redevelopment for the public and private sectors. Kate Emma received a BS in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Environmental Engineering from the University of Vermont, and is a registered professional engineer in New Hampshire. Kate Emma is currently a co-leader of the ITRC PFAS Team
Lesley Hay Wilson, Sage Risk Solutions (lhay_wilson@sagerisk.com)
Webinar Slides and References:
Webinar Slides and References:
Additional Resources:
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