Human Practices
How our project affects the world.
How our project affects the world.
Best integrated Human Practices Award is at the end
In just the past year, a farmer from Michigan came out with an interesting story. Jason Grostic’s family had been running the farm for nearly a 100 years, but when the local government decided to perform a biosolids test, all of it changed. A nearby waste management facility was dumping biosolids and chemicals into the watershed — the same watershed that supplied Grostic’s farm. When the test results came back, he found out that PFAS chemicals were present in his water, his ground, his feed, and his cattle. Consequently, his farm was shut down. Grostic and other farmers around the US are facing increasing issues with PFAS and its prevalence in our water systems. The presence of PFAS has disrupted agriculture in many states and forced farms to shut down due to contaminated yield.
If this wasn’t bad enough, PFAS is now causing impacts to human health directly. According to a recent CDC report using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), around 97 percent of Americans have detectable amounts of PFAS in their blood. This compounds with the multitude of hazards PFAS can pose to humans. Recent studies show potential links to cancer (specifically liver and skin), liver damage, increased susceptibility to non fatty liver disease, a compromised immune system, and more. With the ambiguity surrounding the complete impacts of PFAS, more research is needed in the field. With our project aiming to detect PFAS in the water supplies, there is a chance to help the agricultural industry, as well as the general public and local lawmakers with decisions surrounding PFAS. Which resources or communities did you consult to ensure those are appropriate values in the context of your project?
Some of the most common impacts of PFAS are changes in cholesterol and liver enzyme levels, the immune system, and responses to certain vaccines. Because of its interference with bodily regulations, it can lead to a reduced vaccine response and defense of the immune system, hence, making you more prone to various diseases. Continuing, high levels of certain PFAS can lead to an increase in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and a total increased cholesterol level. Higher liver enzyme levels, typically an indication of liver disease, can result from exposure to other PFAS types.
Dr. Wahlang was very open to discussing with us the impacts of PFAS in more detail, focusing on factors such as gender and genetics. One of the most notable takeaways includes the effects of PFAS exposure on pregnant women and how it can lead to birth defects and poor prenatal outcomes such as lower birth weight, and preterm birth. Additionally, talking with Dr. Wahlang allowed for us to learn more about current approaches with the community, of which includes how Kentucky PFAS Awareness Day was recently established by current governor, Andy Beshear.
Microplastics and PFAS have quickly become concerning contaminants in our water systems. Microplastics are tiny plastic particles that are formed due to the breakdown of larger plastic items, found in several different water bodies. They’re unwanted because of their harm towards aquatic ecosystems and interfere with the natural food chain. Another alarming contaminant is PFAS, which are man-made chemicals used for various purposes such as grease and water resistance and are present in several consumer products. Over 97% of Americans have detectable traces of PFAS in their blood, and this is unhealthy because these chemicals are correlated to various diseases, namely cancer. Our meeting with Robert Bates occurred at one of the earliest stages in our project development, so talking with him allowed us to shape our topic of focus and narrow it down to specifically PFAS detection. As he was affiliated with the Louisville Water Company, he mentioned that one of the biggest problems within our water source and filtration was the presence of microplastics and PFAS. He had aided us to make our project more water-based and specific enough to continue pursuing. Later on, as we kept in touch through the progression of our work, when we approached him with the idea of a PPB detection limit, he questioned where its usage would be. Similar discussions to the one we had about the limit were in play throughout the process of solidifying our topic.
We approached community outreach in three different ways: (1) telling our neighbors about PFAS toxicity, (2) approaching businesses that might be related to the impacts of PFAS, and (3) meeting with different professors affiliated with community outreach and water toxicity research. During our time raising funding, we visited our neighbors in order to tell them more about our project and our goals. At first, we went straight into our project details, however, we soon came to realize that several of our neighbors didn’t know what PFAS was or that this water toxicity even existed. From then on, we began to educate them about this chemical and raised awareness in that sense. Secondly, we reached out to various businesses that would have benefited from the impacts of PFAS. Places such as dermatology clinics, cancer-related practices, and general hospitals were sent emails from us discussing the effects of PFAS that could personally relate to them. For instance, for dermatology clinics we mentioned how PFAS can correlate to melanoma cancer and other skin-related diseases. Thirdly, we approached various professors affiliated with PFAS and other parts of our project. We conducted interviews such as those with Dr. Wahlang, but also requested guidance such as that with Dr. Monsen. With this, we were able to discover more about the effects of PFAS in order to approach lay people such as our neighbors. This improved not only our relations with academically-oriented workers studying impacts of PFAS, but also our understanding of what they are which later benefited our project.
The Louisville Mayor’s Office of Sustainability is a government department in Louisville, Kentucky (where our team is located) that works to promote environmental motions and research in our city. They work with initiatives related to various kinds of sustainable practices such as energy efficiency, water toxicity reduction, green infrastructure, etc., in order for our city to be a better livable home.
Although this was one of the few meetings where we didn’t receive any feedback or guidance for our project, it allowed for us to connect to the community more. With this opportunity, we were able to spread our knowledge and broader research out into the local community, making more of our citizens aware about PFAS and its harmful effects. The interview with the Office of Sustainability allowed for us to be able to interact directly with the local government, leading to potential connections for later research. Additionally, with this were we able to receive contact about potentially participating in a university podcast about our work.
In order to raise enough money to participate in the competition, we held 4 car washes over the course of 2 weekends. With these car washes, we were able to raise nearly 1,200 dollars, just enough for us to compete. Since we started later than most teams, we were consistently behind in developing our team, project, and funding. With a 2-week extension we graciously accepted, we were able to raise funds for our team with car washes. However, the car washes proved to be beneficial in more than one way: yes, they were our source of funding, but they were also an opportunity to raise awareness about PFAS and our research with it.
With the wonderful donors who had supported us on our journey, we explained the harmful effects of PFAS. Namely, we described its effects on pregnant women (information that we received from Dr. Banrida Wahlang) and the various cancers it can lead to the development of (research conducted as we reached out to various businesses). We tied in all the information we had gathered prior from outreach with both corporate and academic settings and summed it up such that a lay person can understand the level of toxicity PFAS brings upon us. With this summary, we were able to reach out to the general public and raise awareness for the toxicity in our water due to these chemical contaminants.
The lab we had worked in for our project was managed by Sabine Waigel and throughout our lab processes, we were assisted by Dr. Thomas. This guidance allowed for us to shape our lab procedures and ensure that they’d be practical in a given timeframe. Additionally, if given more time, with these processes that we developed with their aid, we would potentially be able to fully complete our experiments. This guidance allowed for us to receive a clearer picture as to where we would want to go with our lab work. We were able to narrow our focus onto 4-5 broad, basic procedures that were repeated in order for us to not overcomplicate the way we approached the lab. With this, we were able to run through our lab procedures. However, even though we didn’t receive the most optimal results, we were able to gain experience to successfully complete the lab experiments next competition season.
Dr. Michael Martin is one of our PIs, however not affiliated with our school. He works at the University of Louisville’s Micro and Nanotechnology Center. When he heard about our project, he jumped aboard and guided us through the entire way. Additionally, he ensured that we remained practical throughout the development of our project. Dr. Martin created a way for team members to communicate with each other and other adults. With his support, we were able to contact various people and set up meetings. He taught our team VCell, the modeling platform we use, and essentially carried it on throughout the season and ensured everything worked properly. He made sure that we were able to manage everything in a proper and efficient way as we worked, especially in some of the more critical times (such as when we had 2 weeks to raise a thousand dollars).
Dr. Robert Monsen is an assistant professor at the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine, working with biochemistry as well as molecular dynamics. He’s currently working on understanding the structure and function of non-B DNA structures known as G-quadruplexes. With his help due to experience in modeling, we were able to learn more about depicting PFAS interaction with other chemicals and discover how we could predict certain outcomes with PFAS interference. This guidance allowed for us to better develop our modeled interactions with PFAS and other chemicals and substances for a more in-depth visual, more complicated than the VCell version. This allowed for us to more adroitly predict the outcome of our experiments, but more rather, learn more about certain PFAS and how they work.
There are currently three main methods used for PFAS filtration: granular activated carbon, ion exchange resins, and high-pressure membrane systems. Granular activated carbon uses raw materials with high carbon when in an absence of oxygen, increases the surface area of the carbon through heat, which as a result, removes chemical contaminants. Ion exchange resins essentially “soften” the water by replacing the cations in sodium chloride with sodium ions, as a result reducing the chemical toxicity. High-pressure membrane systems on the other hand, prevent the spread of various bacteria and viruses, hindering the development of toxicity.
The LWC tour allowed us to learn more about the current motions towards PFAS screening and research as well as other filtering water toxicity methods in our community. This tour answered several of our questions about various perspectives on PFAS contamination and its impacts. We also discovered that due to the high costs to develop a PFAS filtering system, our city approaches other states for filtering help twice a month; however, one is being made over the course of the next six months.
For one, our numerous connections with the community and various academically-oriented people should establish our credibility. Additionally, with our various modeling and in-depth visuals of the interactions between PFAS and different substances should go to show that we are a team with sufficient knowledge about the topic to develop a feasible project. We also have on-board several professionals who continuously input their thoughts into the practicality of our idea and influenced several decisions that led to what became our project. We know that our project is responsible and good for the world since it is a theory that should provide a more efficient way to detect PFAS such that day-to-day people will be able to better filter their water in the long run. We’re helping develop models to reduce the water toxicity intake of the human population, which proves to be beneficial to the world.
Our project will impact the field of water quality and water treatment in major ways. With this project, we aim to create a high throughput, controllable, and cost-effective testing system for PFAS in waterways. We hope that this project will be used in waterways, not only in the US, but around the world for testing for PFAS chemicals. Using this testing method, agencies of different countries will have increased data about the presence of PFAS in their country, which will both stress the need for a solution to PFAS and provide the public and water treatment facilities with knowledge about health hazards in the water.
The proposed end users are government agencies, nonprofits, or even normal people, who use our mutated E. coli to test their water for an accurate reading of the concentration of PFAS in a cost effective and faster way.
We envision others going to local streams or rivers and using our bacteria in order to determine the concentration of PFAS in the water. With this information in their hands, we envision governments of countries stepping up and employing stricter regulations against PFAS chemicals and funding more research into the removal and degradation of PFAS. We also envision local nonprofit groups using our bacteria as a way of educating people in their community about PFAS, its dangers, and where it’s found around them. Finally, we hope this reaches water treatment facilities, who can make a more active effort against PFAS using current cleaning methods.
Our mutated bacteria would most likely be put into a sensor or probe device. This device would be cheap, portable, and accessible to everyone. We want to use the glow of the bacteria to either create a system that can display the estimated concentration of PFAS or allow the user to check the fluorescence and compare it to an established standard curve.
Note: All experiments, data, and results for these modelling methods can be found throughout the website.
Our project affects society by ensuring people of their safety and satisfaction for their needs, namely water. The project’s goal is to detect one of the most ubiquitous and dangerous environmental pollutants, the synthetic chemicals known as PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Exposure to PFAS can lead to altered immune and thyroid function, liver disease, lipid and insulin dysregulation, kidney disease, adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes, and most importantly, cancer.
Our project aims to benefit our community by providing safer water, making our neighbors feel less threatened by serious health effects that may result from water toxicity. As we continue to develop our project, we would like to explore the dangers of other man-made chemicals like PFAS and provide solutions such as the one we developed for this year’s competition.
Ethical considerations and stakeholder input guide have influenced our project’s goals, design, and lab experiment as they showed us beneficial alternatives to our ideas, decisions, and experimentation. Throughout the development of our project, we grew and built connections that would in turn make our project not just as successful as can be, but also unique, and with a story. One of our most notable conversations was with Dr. Banrida Wahlang, a toxicologist from the University of Louisville, where we went into depth about other synthetic chemicals contributing to the growing concern of water toxicity. This interview allowed for our team’s ambition to grow into a will to break the barriers of not just PFAS, but other man-made chemicals and water toxicity as a whole.