Scenarios

About

In recent years the presence of toxic pollutants in the environment has increased along with the awareness of their potentially adverse effects on human health. During the last decade, PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) have been included in the Persistent Organic Pollutants list, as they disperse and accumulate in the environment and are potentially carcinogenic. The detection of PFAS in several environmental samples (soil, sediments, biota, dust air, food, drinking water, etc.) confirms their high persistence and mobility. Moreover, their chemical structure and their reactivity pose a technological challenge for chemical environmental technologies for remediation.

The SCENARIOS project (Strategies for health protection, pollution Control and Elimination of Next generAtion RefractIve Organic chemicals from the Soil, vadose zone and water), funded by the European Community. With the Università del Piemonte Orientale as coordinator, SCENARIOS has united several research institutes to work on the project. The goal is to devise and demonstrate a comprehensive set of technological solutions to address the detection, biomonitoring, long-term toxicity, risk assessment, pollution control and remediation of Per- and polyFluoroAlkyl Substances (PFASs) as a test bed for zero pollution ambition from organic chemicals.

Polo GGB plays many roles in the SCENARIOS project. It offers its expertise and technological resources in genomics and in the sequencing of samples exposed to polluting substances. All the while, Polo GGB monitors the autoimmune response with immunoassays in blood samples taken from people living in areas with high levels of PFAS. Ultimately, Polo will also check the ability of PFAS to interfere with people’s immune system response to the COVID-19 vaccination.