PFAS: A Case Study in Maine – Including Plant Uptake in Corn & Hay

The webinar included the following presentation:

Andy Smith and Tom Simones, Maine Department of Health & Human Services [PDF] presented about a dairy farm in Maine including:

• Context – how the farm presented and how this led to work to derive soil screening levels for a soil-to-hay/corn-to-milk-to-child exposure pathway
• Use of a modified EPA Preliminary Remedial Goals for Radionuclides equation as the exposure model
• Inputs for the model – from the literature, EPA defaults, dairy farm scenarios (grass-based versus more typical)
• Pilot studies with Maine DEP of plant uptake by hay and corn, comparisons to literature, and confirmation of plant results by FDA
• Maine’s milk action level for PFOS
• Resulting soil screening levels and how they compare to others
• How the model has performed when we run to estimate soil levels based on observed milk levels at three farms