"Burdette worked with a team of North Carolina State University scientists who measured PFAS concentration in the blood of alligators and found that it was correlated with immune issues in the animals—another worrying sign in a decades-long history of PFAS poisoning in Cape Fear."
"Alligator jaws have an incredible amount of crushing force but not very many pounds of opening force, Burdette says. You can actually hold an alligator's mouth shut, even a big one."
"A former Navy search and rescue swimmer who grew up sloshing around swamps and backwaters, he's a Riverkeeper, the local leader of the national Waterkeeper environmental organization dedicated to saving the region's 200-mile riverine ecosystem."
Kemp Burdette, a Riverkeeper for the Cape Fear River in North Carolina, captures wild alligators to test their blood for PFAS contamination. Working with North Carolina State University scientists, the team discovered that PFAS concentrations in alligator blood correlate with immune system problems in the animals. This finding adds to decades of documented PFAS poisoning in the Cape Fear region. PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are industrial chemicals used in products like Teflon coating. The contamination was first brought to public attention by investigative journalism in 2017 when GenX, a specific PFAS substance, was identified in the area. Burdette's work as a former Navy search and rescue swimmer now focuses on protecting the 200-mile riverine ecosystem through environmental monitoring and advocacy.
#pfas-contamination #environmental-monitoring #wildlife-health #cape-fear-river #industrial-pollution
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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