‘Forever chemicals’ found to rain down on all five Great Lakes

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS or “forever chemicals,” have become persistent pollutants in the air, water and soil. Because they are so stable, they can be transported throughout the water cycle, making their way into drinking water sources and precipitation. According to findings published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology, precipitation introduces similar amounts of PFAS into each of the Great Lakes; however, the lakes eliminate the chemicals at different rates.

Consuming PFAS has been linked to negative health outcomes. And in April 2024, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated two forever chemicals — PFOS and PFOA — as hazardous substances, placing limits on their concentrations in drinking water. The Great Lakes are a major freshwater source for both the U.S. and Canada, and the EPA reports that the surrounding basin area is home to roughly 10% and 30% of each country’s population, respectively. Previous studies demonstrated that these lakes contain PFAS. But Marta Venier at Indiana University and colleagues from the U.S. and Canada wanted to understand where the compounds come from and where they go.

Between 2021 and 2022, 207 precipitation samples and 60 air samples were taken from five sites surrounding the Great Lakes in the U.S.: Chicago; Cleveland; Sturgeon Point, N.Y.; Eagle Harbor, Mich.; and Sleeping Bear Dunes, Mich. During the same period, 87 different water samples were collected from the five Great Lakes. The team analyzed all the samples for 41 types of PFAS and found:

• In precipitation samples, PFAS concentrations largely remained the same across sites, suggesting that the compounds are present at similar levels regardless of population density.
• In air samples, Cleveland had the highest median concentration of PFAS and Sleeping Bear Dunes the lowest, suggesting a strong connection between population density and airborne PFAS.
• In the lake water samples, the highest concentration of PFAS were in Lake Ontario, followed by Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Superior.
• The concentration of PFOS and PFOA in lake water decreased compared to data from previous studies as far back as 2005, but the concentration of a replacement PFAS known as PFBA remained high, suggesting that further regulation efforts may be needed.

The team calculated that airborne deposition from precipitation is primarily how PFAS get into the lakes, while they’re removed by sedimentation, attaching to particles as they settle to the lakebed or flowing out through connecting channels. Overall, their calculations showed that the northernmost lakes (Superior, Michigan and Huron) are generally accumulating PFAS. Further south, Lake Ontario is generally eliminating the compounds and levels in Lake Erie remain at a steady state. The researchers say that this work could help inform future actions and policies aimed at mitigating PFAS’ presence in the Great Lakes. 

The authors acknowledge funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Great Lakes National Program Office.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.3c10098 

ARTICLE TITLE

“The Ins and Outs of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in the Great Lakes: The Role of Atmospheric Deposition”

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-May-2024

To sound like a hockey player, speak like a Canadian #ASA186

American athletes tend to signal their identity as hockey players through Canadian English-like accents.

ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

 

IMAGE: 

ANDREW BRAY, FORMER UGA ICE DAWG, WILL PRESENT AN INVESTIGATION INTO AMERICAN HOCKEY PLAYERS’ USE OF CANADIAN ENGLISH ACCENTS AT THE 186TH MEETING OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. HERE THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA TAKES ON THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN THE 2016 SAVANNAH TIRE HOCKEY CLASSIC. 

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CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA ICE DAWGS

OTTAWA, Ontario, May 16, 2024 – As a hockey player, Andrew Bray was familiar with the slang thrown around the “barn” (hockey arena). As a linguist, he wanted to understand how sport-specific jargon evolved and permeated across teams, regions, and countries. In pursuit of the sociolinguistic “biscuit” (puck), he faced an unexpected question.

“It was while conducting this initial study that I was asked a question that has since shaped the direction of my subsequent research,” said Bray. “‘Are you trying to figure out why the Americans sound like fake Canadians?’” 

Canadian English dialects are stereotypically represented by the vowel pronunciation, or articulation, in words like “out” and “about,” borrowed British terms like “zed,” and the affinity for the tag question “eh?” Bray, from the University of Rochester, will present an investigation into American hockey players’ use of Canadian English accents Thursday, May 16, at 8:25 a.m. EDT as part of a joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association, running May 13-17 at the Shaw Centre located in downtown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Studying how hockey players talk required listening to them talk about hockey. To analyze unique vowel articulation and the vast collection of sport-specific slang terminology that players incorporated into their speech, Bray visited different professional teams to interview their American-born players.

“In these interviews, I would ask players to discuss their career trajectories, including when and why they began playing hockey, the teams that they played for throughout their childhood, why they decided to pursue collegiate or major junior hockey, and their current lives as professionals,” said Bray. “The interview sought to get players talking about hockey for as long as possible.”

Bray found that American athletes borrow features of the Canadian English accents, especially for hockey-specific terms and jargon, but do not follow the underlying rules behind the pronunciation, which could explain why the accent might sound “fake” to a Canadian.

“It is important to note that American hockey players are not trying to shift their speech to sound more Canadian,” said Bray. "Rather, they are trying to sound more like a hockey player.”

Players from Canada and northern American states with similar accents have historically dominated the sport. Adopting features of this dialect is a way hockey players can outwardly portray their identity through speech, called a linguistic persona. Many factors influence this persona, like age, gender expression, social category, and as Bray demonstrated, a sport.

Going forward, Bray plans to combine his recent work with his original quest to investigate if Canadian English pronunciation and the hockey linguistic persona are introduced to American players through the sport’s signature slang.

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----------------------- MORE MEETING INFORMATION -----------------------

Main meeting website: https://acousticalsociety.org/ottawa/  
Technical program: https://eppro02.ativ.me/src/EventPilot/php/express/web/planner.php?id=ASASPRING24

ASA PRESS ROOM

In the coming weeks, ASA's Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/.

LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS

ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are summaries (300-500 words) of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.

PRESS REGISTRATION

ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the hybrid / in-person meeting or virtual press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at media@aip.org. For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.

ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

The Acoustical Society of America is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world's leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/. 

ABOUT THE CANADIAN ACOUSTICAL ASSOCIATION/ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE D’ACOUSTIQUE

•            fosters communication among people working in all areas of acoustics in Canada 
•            promotes the growth and practical application of knowledge in acoustics 
•            encourages education, research, protection of the environment, and employment in acoustics 
•            is an umbrella organization through which general issues in education, employment and research can be addressed at a national and multidisciplinary level

The CAA is a member society of the International Institute of Noise Control Engineering (I-INCE) and the International Commission for Acoustics (ICA) and is an affiliate society of the International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration (IIAV). Visit https://caa-aca.ca/. 

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A new and better way to detect media censorship

UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM

 

IMAGE: 

A VISUALISATION OF THE AGENDA INDEPENDENCE SCORE, WHICH SHOWS HOW THE THREE NOMINALLY INDEPENDENT OUTLETS IN NICARAGUA DECLINE IN INDEPENDENCE OVER TIME. THE VISUALISATION ALSO SHOWS HOW ONE OUTLET (CANAL14) DECLINES MORE STEEPLY THAN THE OTHER TWO.

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CREDIT: BARNEHL EN SCHUMACHER

Worldwide news media are facing increasing pressure from autocrats to report favourably about their leaders and party politics. Political scientists launch a new computational method that can detect such media censorship by states while it is happening. This method provides valuable insights for  communicating regime-driven media capture to the public. It is now described in detail in the scientific journal ‘Democratization’.

One of the first steps of would-be autocrats is to control the media, as seen in recent cases in Russia, Hungary, and Turkey. Most autocratic regimes today execute control not by monopolising media production, but by using legal, economic, and physical measures to sway the editorial choices of both public and private media in their favour. All to portray themselves and their party politics favourably to the public. Prominent examples of such measures are loosely defined laws, like anti-terrorism and anti-fake-news laws, used to silence opposition voices.

So far, expert surveys were employed to detect instances of such media capture by states. While these surveys are valuable, the authors argue they are inadequate. Their new computational method has the precision to uncover the influence of media capture on editorial decisions, assess immediate impacts from new censorship laws, and differentiate between various media outlets.

Comparing agenda and tone

Very simply explained, the computational method compares media agenda and tone of independent versus regime-owned outlets and through time. ‘Agenda and tone are two crucial components that autocrats aim to influence to emphasize topics favourable for their legitimacy and force a positive tone when mentioning the regime, especially its leader’, explain the authors.

Through this comparison the loss of editorial independence at the level of individual outlets are brought to the surface on a monthly or even weekly basis. ‘This takes into account that the process of media capture often does not progress uniformly across the media landscape. While some outlets remain independent from the regime, others, such as those owned by the state, the ruling party, or the leader's family or allies, are already fully captured.’

Tested as a valid method

To test the validity of this method, the authors applied it to the case of Nicaragua, where the regime has intensively cracked down on the media sector in the last years. ‘The country made for an ideal candidate, because it has experienced a steep deterioration of its media freedom in the last decade and the regime’s attacks on opposition media are well documented’, state the authors. Their method proved able to show how outlets responded differently to regime pressure. ‘We found clear differences in agenda and tone between the regime-owned outlets and the opposition outlets. And during and after the regime’s media crackdown, independent outlets shifted from a more critical stance to approximating regime preferences in tone and agenda.’

The defence of media from state interference

According to the authors, future research should evaluate the validity of their method across different media systems and stages of autocratization or democratization. ‘But the methodology could potentially revolutionize the future study of media capture,' they conclude. ‘It provides valuable insights for both researchers and for communicating regime-driven media capture to the public. It has the potential to reveal differences in outlets' resilience to repressive laws and allows for the timely assessment of the impact of seemingly innocuous fake-news or libel laws.’

Publication details

Hennes-Michel Barnehl and Gijs Schumacher, ‘Media capture, captured a new computational methodology to measure deteriorating media freedom’, In: Democratization

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JOURNAL

Democratization

DOI

10.1080/13510347.2024.2331694 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Media capture, captured a new computational methodology to measure deteriorating media freedom

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-May-2024

 

Risk perception influenced less by media than previously thought

People don’t overestimate the frequency of dramatic causes of death

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH (TUM)

For decades, researchers have assumed that people overestimate the risk of dramatic causes of death, such as road traffic accidents. The reason given for this was that such deaths are the subject of far greater media attention than more significant but less spectacular mortality risks. However, a study at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now debunked this assumption. Although dramatic causes of death receive disproportionate media attention, deaths in the personal environment are more important for the risk perception.

From road traffic accidents to fires and murders, dramatic causes of death receive considerable media attention. The scientific consensus to date has been that, because the media report dramatic causes of death more frequently than “silent” causes such as heart attacks and diabetes, many people misjudge their prevalence. In specialist literature, this was considered one of the most settled findings in research into risk perception.

However, this assumption can ultimately be traced back to just a single study. In 1978, a team led by Sarah Lichtenstein at the Oregon Research Institute asked respondents to estimate the number of annual deaths for around 40 different causes. The study compared these assumptions with real figures and also examined the extent to which these causes of death were reported in the media and how this reporting was perceived by the respondents.

In the course of his research into risk perception, Thorsten Pachur, Professor of Behavioral Research Methods at TUM, discovered something surprising: the study’s conclusions were not underpinned by statistical analyses and had not been confirmed in subsequent studies. With this in mind, Pachur reevaluated the data from the original study. In addition, he incorporated the two subsequent studies (in which he had participated) that had also examined risk perception and conventional media reporting with similar lists of causes of death, reevaluating their data using the same method.

Results of influential study not replicable

Thorsten Pachur’s study has confirmed that dramatic causes of death have indeed been covered with disproportionate frequency in news reports given their actual prevalence, while unspectacular causes of death have been underrepresented.

However, Pachur’s analysis called the prevailing assumptions about people’s risk perception into question. His evaluation of the data confirmed that the respondents in the 1978 study inaccurately estimated the prevalence of seemingly spectacular risks. However, it was not possible to replicate this result with the data from the more recent studies. The results of a research experiment are only considered verified when they are replicable.

Instead, Pachur’s evaluation of the two more recent studies showed that overestimation or underestimation of a risk is not dependent on whether the respective cause of death is dramatic or non-dramatic. This conclusion remains valid even when evaluating the aggregated data of all three studies. And, when Pachur integrated further studies examining perceptions of mortality risks (but not media reporting), his conclusion was confirmed again.

“These insights do not call into question the fundamental notion that the media can influence people’s perception of risks,” emphasizes Pachur. “However, we should stop believing that a distortion in the level of reporting necessarily leads to a distortion in risk perception.”

Deaths in social environment are a more significant factor

Pachur also found a different explanation for people’s perceptions. Some of the studies he analyzed had also asked participants about their social environment. The new evaluation of this data has shown that the number of deaths of people known to an individual has a far more significant influence on the risk perception of the respective cause of death than the media.

“An important finding is that we are not helpless in the face of distortions in reporting,” says Pachur. “People are evidently quite capable of engaging consciously with news reports and incorporating other sources into their judgment.”

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JOURNAL

Cognition

DOI

10.1016/j.cognition.2024.105736 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The perception of dramatic risks: Biased media, but unbiased minds

 

Researchers develop a detector for continuously monitoring toxic gases

The material could be made as a thin coating to analyze air quality in industrial or home settings over time.

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

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RESEARCHERS AT MIT HAVE DEVELOPED A DETECTOR THAT COULD PROVIDE CONTINUOUS MONITORING FOR THE PRESENCE OF TOXIC GASES, AT LOW COST. THE TEAM USED A MATERIAL CALLED A METAL-ORGANIC FRAMEWORK, OR MOF (PICTURED AS THE BLACK LATTICE), WHICH IS HIGHLY SENSITIVE TO TINY TRACES OF GAS BUT WHOSE PERFORMANCE QUICKLY DEGRADES. 

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CREDIT: ARISTIDE GUMYUSENGE ET AL

Most systems used to detect toxic gases in industrial or domestic settings can be used only once, or at best a few times. Now, researchers at MIT have developed a detector that could provide continuous monitoring for the presence of these gases, at low cost.

The new system combines two existing technologies, bringing them together in a way that preserves the advantages of each while avoiding their limitations. The team used a material called a metal-organic framework, or MOF, which is highly sensitive to tiny traces of gas but whose performance quickly degrades, and combined it with a polymer material that is highly durable and easier to process, but much less sensitive. 

The results are reported today in the journal Advanced Materials, in a paper by MIT professors Aristide Gumyusenge, Mircea Dinca, Heather Kulik, and Jesus del Alamo, graduate student Heejung Roh, and postdocs Dong-Ha Kim, Yeongsu Cho, and Young-Moo Jo.

Highly porous and with large surface areas, MOFs come in a variety of compositions. Some can be insulators, but the ones used for this work are highly electrically conductive. With their sponge-like form, they are effective at capturing molecules of various gases, and the sizes of their pores can be tailored to make them selective for particular kinds of gases. “If you are using them as a sensor, you can recognize if the gas is there if it has an effect on the resistivity of the MOF,” says Gumyusenge, the paper’s senior author and the Merton C. Flemings Career Development Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering.

The drawback for these materials’ use as detectors for gases is that they readily become saturated, and then can no longer detect and quantify new inputs. “That’s not what you want. You want to be able to detect and reuse,” Gumyusenge says. “So, we decided to use a polymer composite to achieve this reversibility.”

The team used a class of conductive polymers that Gumyusenge and his co-workers had previously showncan respond to gases without permanently binding to them. “The polymer, even though it doesn’t have the high surface area that the MOFs do, will at least provide this recognize-and-release type of phenomenon,” he says.

The team combined the polymers in a liquid solution along with the MOF material in powdered form, and deposited the mixture on a substrate, where they dry into a uniform, thin coating. By combining the polymer, with its quick detection capability, and the more sensitive MOFs, in a one-to-one ratio, he says, “suddenly we get a sensor that has both the high sensitivity we get from the MOF and the reversibility that is enabled by the presence of the polymer.”

The material changes its electrical resistance when molecules of the gas are temporarily trapped in the material. These changes in resistance can be continuously monitored by simply attaching an ohmmeter to track the resistance over time. Gumyusenge and his students demonstrated the composite material’s ability to detect nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas produced by many kinds of combustion, in a small lab-scale device. After 100 cycles of detection, the material was still maintaining its baseline performance within a margin of about 5 to 10 percent, demonstrating its long-term use potential.

In addition, this material has far greater sensitivity than most presently used detectors for nitrogen dioxide, the team reports. This gas is often detected after the use of stove ovens. And, with this gas recently linked to many asthma cases in the U.S., reliable detection in low concentrations is important. The team demonstrated that this new composite could detect, reversibly, the gas at concentrations as low as 2 parts per million. 

While their demonstration was specifically aimed at nitrogen dioxide, Gumyusenge says, “we can definitely tailor the chemistry to target other volatile molecules,” as long as they are small polar analytes, “which tend to be most of the toxic gases.”

Besides being compatible with a simple hand-held detector or a smoke-alarm type of device, one advantage of the material is that the polymer allows it to be deposited as an extremely thin uniform film, unlike regular MOFs, which are generally in an inefficient powder form. Because the films are so thin, there is little material needed and production material costs could be low; the processing methods could be typical of those used for industrial coating processes. “So, maybe the limiting factor will be scaling up the synthesis of the polymers, which we’ve been synthesizing in small amounts,” Gumyusenge says.

“The next steps will be to evaluate these in real-life settings,” he says. For example, the material could be applied as a coating on chimneys or exhaust pipes to continuously monitor gases through readings from an attached resistance monitoring device. In such settings, he says, “we need tests to check if we truly differentiate it from other potential contaminants that we might have overlooked in the lab setting. Let’s put the sensors out in real-world scenarios and see how they do.”

The work was supported by the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium (MCSC), the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) at MIT, and the U.S. Department of Energy.

 

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Written by David L. Chandler, MIT News

Paper: “Robust chemiresistive behavior in conductive polymer/MOF composites”

https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202312382

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JOURNAL

Advanced Materials

DOI

10.1002/adma.202312382 

ARTICLE TITLE

Robust Chemiresistive Behavior in Conductive Polymer/MOF Composites

 UK

WORD OF THE DAY

SIR Keir Starmer’s reputation as “Mr Rules” reflects the growing “juridifcation” of politics, study shows

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Keir Starmer’s efforts to be “Mr Rules” and his focus on calling for inquiries reflects the growing “juridification” of politics, experts have said.

    

Though the Labour leader’s consistent      calls for probes into the conduct of government, often culminating in demands for resignations, could be seen as a mere      tactic of opposition politics, the study argues that it is      symptomatic of the “juridification” of politics - the ceding of the terrain of politics to the seemingly superior and separate domains of law and administration.

 

This  marks the abandonment of values-based politics in favour of a reliance upon rules, norms, conventions and procedures to address substantive matters of public policy.

 

The study, by Dr Jamie Johnson, from the University of Leicester, Dr Owen Thomas, from the University of Exeter and Professor Victoria Basham, from Cardiff University, is published in the journal British Politics.

    

Dr Thomas said: “Through this rules-based, rather than values-based approach to politics, the task of government is reduced to the dual imperatives of maintaining standards of probity and competency in public office. Such an approach to politics tends to focus more on restoring established forms of conduct rather than seeking forms of political renewal or reimagination.

 

“As the contours of an incoming Labour government begin to emerge, it is unclear whether such an approach to politics can meaningfully respond to the series of reinforcing crises it will be tasked with tackling: from the climate emergency to the cost of living. The challenge for Labour is to make sense of a political moment in which problems arise as much from the following of established rules as their transgression.”

 

The study says a persistent feature of Labour’s opposition to policies such as immigration and asylum is that it appears more comfortable talking about efficacy than ethics, processes not principles.

 

At times, Labour is keen to appear as the reluctant inheritor and administrator of Conservative policy. At other times, however, Labour appears keen to emphasise elements of continuity as a sign of their seriousness, pragmatism, and readiness for government.

 

Professor           Basham      commented: “Our argument is that Starmer’s ‘forensic’ style, with its associated emphasis on probity and competency, should be read as a continuation of a global trend in the juridification of politics, that signifies a reliance on judicial and quasi-judicial means to address substantive ethical and political matters of public policy.

 

“It is an approach to politics which stands back and lets the law, the rule, the procedure decide. It is unpolitical in that it seeks to stand above the political sphere and to seek political outcomes by means other than politics. It does so through the conspicuous abandonment of the terrain of politics and the reification of the seemingly superior and separate spheres of law and administration.”

 

“This rise of juridification has not gone unnoticed. The Conservative government clearly understands that the most concerted and effective opposition to their policies in recent years has come through law, not politics. In response, Conservative rhetoric has been defined by attacks against the institutions that administer ‘the rules’: human rights lawyers, supreme court and European judges, civil servants, Treasury orthodoxy, and the so-called ‘left-wing economic establishment’.”

 

Dr Johnson said: “The juridification of politics extends well beyond Starmer’s Labour Party, capturing a broader trend within centre and centre-left politics in which progressive political outcomes are increasingly sought with recourse to the law. The juridification of politics is not simply to pursue good politics through good law, it is to reduce and equate good politics to good law.

    

“If politics is to be nothing more than ensuring adherence to the rules and policing their transgression, then what are we left with in an age in which the rules themselves appear to be the problem?”

 

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JOURNAL

British Politics

DOI

10.1057/s41293-024-00258-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

‘Mr Rules’: Keir Starmer and the juridification of politics.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-May-2024

Natural toxins in food: Many people are not aware of the health risks

German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment publishes special edition of the BfR Consumer Monitor

BFR FEDERAL INSTITUTE FOR RISK ASSESSMENT

Many people are concerned about residues of chemicals, contaminants or microplastics in their food. However, it is less well known that many foods also contain toxins of completely natural origin. These are often chemical compounds that plants use to ward off predators such as insects or microorganisms. These substances are found in beans and potatoes, for example, and can pose potential health risks. However, according to a recent representative survey by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), only just under half of the respondents (47 per cent) were even aware of plant toxic substances. The BfR Consumer Monitor Special on naturally occurring plant toxins also revealed that this risk worries 27 per cent. In contrast, residues in food (e.g. from plant protection products) and contaminants, i.e. substances that are not intentionally added to food (e.g. heavy metals), cause concern for 63 and 62 per cent of respondents respectively. "The survey results make it clear that risks of natural origin tend to be underestimated, while risks of synthetic origin tend to be overestimated," says BfR President Professor Andreas Hensel."

Link to the consumer monitor

https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/364/bfr-consumer-monitor-2024-special-naturally-occurring-plant-based-toxins.pdf

Raw plant-based foods are consumed frequently by 34 per cent, occasionally or rarely by 45 per cent and very rarely or not at all by 19 per cent.

Which foods with naturally occurring plant toxins do you already know? If this question is asked openly and without pre-selection, potatoes are named first (15 per cent), followed by tomatoes, raw beans (nine per cent each) and mushrooms (five per cent).

Naturally occurring toxic substances worry 27 per cent in the survey. More than half of the respondents (53 per cent) feel poorly informed about plant toxins in food, while only eight per cent feel well informed.

At 63 per cent and 62 per cent respectively, significantly more consumers are concerned about residues or contaminants.

Residues are residual amounts of substances that are used in the production of food. For example, residues can remain in fruit, vegetables or cereals even if plant protection products are used correctly.

Contaminants, on the other hand, are undesirable substances that unintentionally end up in food. They can occur naturally in the environment, arise during the processing of raw materials into food or be released into the environment as a result of human activities. Contaminants are undesirable because they can be harmful to health under certain circumstances.

The study also shed light on the related topic of "mouldy food". Here, too, there is a clear need for education. Even small amounts of mould toxins can be harmful to the health of humans and animals. Mouldy jam, for example, should therefore always be disposed of completely. Nevertheless, 25 per cent of respondents stated that they only remove the mouldy part. Even in the case of mouldy berries, affected and surrounding fruit should no longer be eaten. Only 60 per cent adhere to this rule.

 

About the BfR

The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) is a scientifically independent institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Germany. The BfR advises the Federal Government and the States (‘Laender’) on questions of food, chemicals and product safety. The BfR conducts independent research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.

This text version is a translation of the original German text which is the only legally binding version.

Fast track to food safety: new test spots seafood pathogen in 30 minutes

ZHEJIANG UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: 

SCHEMATIC SHOWING THE USE OF A CRISPR/CAS12A SYSTEM COMBINED WITH ISOTHERMAL AMPLIFICATION AND ICS FOR RAPID AND VISUAL NUCLEIC ACID DETECTION.

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CREDIT: FOOD QUALITY AND SAFETY

Researchers have developed a groundbreaking point-of-care detection method for Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacterium responsible for a significant number of foodborne illnesses. The new platform, leveraging recombinant polymerase amplification (RPA) and the CRISPR/Cas12a system combined with an immunochromatographic test strip (ICS), offers a low-cost, simple, and visually intuitive solution for the rapid detection of this pathogen in seafood.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative, halophilic bacterium prevalent in marine environments and is the primary cause of acute hepatopancreatic necrosis, also known as early death syndrome, in aquaculture. It represents a considerable public health hazard, especially through the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood. The bacterium can contaminate seafood surfaces, leading to foodborne outbreaks. Current detection methods, which rely on microbial isolation, culturing, and biochemical identification, are too slow for effective point-of-care testing (POCT).

In a notable advancement for food safety, scientists from the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences have unveiled a novel detection platform that identifies Vibrio parahaemolyticus within 30 minutes. This innovation could significantly reduce the risk of foodborne illness from seafood. Published in Food Quality and Safety, (DOI:10.1093/fqsafe/fyae008) , February 2024, this method marks a substantial improvement in food safety and public health measures.

The research team developed an innovative platform that swiftly detects the presence of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in seafood. This rapid-response system is transformative for food safety, where early detection of pathogens is crucial for preventing illness. The platform utilizes a combined approach involving recombinant polymerase amplification (RPA), the CRISPR/Cas12a system, and an immunochromatographic test strip (ICS). It specifically targets the tlh gene of V. parahaemolyticus, facilitating highly sensitive detection. The procedure starts with extracting bacterial DNA from the seafood sample, followed by RPA for amplification. The CRISPR/Cas12a system then accurately identifies and cleaves the target gene, with the ICS providing a visual confirmation of the bacterium's presence. This method achieves a detection limit of 2.5×102 fg/µL for plasmid DNA and 1.4×102 CFU/mL for the bacteria. Remarkably, it can detect V. parahaemolyticus in salmon sashimi at concentrations as low as 154 CFU/g without sample enrichment. This breakthrough overcomes the drawbacks of traditional culture-based methods, offering a faster, more accessible approach for monitoring seafood safety.

Dr. Haijuan Zeng, the corresponding author and leader of the Biotechnology Research Institute at the Shanghai Academy of Agricultural Sciences, stated, "Our innovative detection platform represents a significant advancement in the rapid and sensitive detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, proving especially valuable for ensuring seafood safety and preventing public health crises."

This new method could revolutionize how food safety is monitored in the seafood industry, offering a rapid, cost-effective solution that can be implemented directly at points of sale or during food handling, significantly shortening the detection timeframe and potentially averting foodborne outbreaks before contaminated products reach consumers.

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References

DOI

10.1093/fqsafe/fyae008

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.1093/fqsafe/fyae008

Funding information

This study was supported by the Scientific and Innovative Action Plan of Shanghai (No.21N31900800), the Shanghai Rising-Star Program (No.23QB1403500), the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, the Belt and Road Project (No.20310750500), the Talent Project of SAAS (No.2023–2025), and the SAAS Program for Excellent Research Team (No.2022 (B-16)), China.

About Food Quality and Safety

Food Quality and Safety (FQS) is an open access, international, peer-reviewed journal providing a platform to highlight emerging and innovative science and technology in the agro-food field, publishing up-to-date research in the areas of food quality, food safety, food nutrition and human health. It is covered by SCI-E and the 2022 Impact Factor (IF)=5.6, 5-yr IF=6.2.

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JOURNAL

Food Quality and Safety

DOI

10.1093/fqsafe/fyae008 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A visual, rapid, and sensitive detection platform for Vibrio parahaemolyticus based on RPA-CRISPR/Cas12a and an immunochromatographic test strip