{"id":5124,"date":"2023-06-28T16:00:05","date_gmt":"2023-06-28T23:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/usc-researchers-assess-impact-of-pfas-in-drinking-water-systems-in-southern-california\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T10:48:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:48:03","slug":"usc-researchers-assess-impact-of-pfas-in-drinking-water-systems-in-southern-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/usc-researchers-assess-impact-of-pfas-in-drinking-water-systems-in-southern-california\/","title":{"rendered":"USC Researchers Assess Impact of PFAS in Drinking Water Systems in Southern California"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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USC Researchers Assess Impact of PFAS in Drinking Water Systems in Southern California<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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As climate change worsens droughts and jeopardizes water imports, California has been forced to rethink water sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n

\n Boki Muigai<\/span>\n \n June 28, 2023<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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From left: Max Aung, PhD, and Lida Chatzi, MD, PhD. Photos courtesy Max Aung and Lida Chatzi.<\/figcaption>\n <\/figure>\n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n \n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\r\n\r\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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USC Research and Innovation (R&I) has selected researchers from the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences of Keck School of Medicine and the Viterbi School of Engineering of USC for the President\u2019s Sustainability Initiative Award. The nominated study led by Lida Chatzi, MD, PhD, and Max Aung, PhD, received $433,310 dedicated towards \u201cPFAS ACT: Addressing the PFAS Drinking Water Crisis in Southern California.\u201d The transdisciplinary project brings together experts from across USC to examine the health effects of pollutants such as PFAS on human health.<\/p>\n

As climate change worsens droughts and jeopardizes water imports, California has been forced to rethink water sustainability. This is coupled with an emerging water quality crisis fueled by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contamination, which has been proposed as a Superfund hazardous substance. These \u2018forever chemicals\u2019 are a class of synthetic fluorinated persistent organic chemicals that have been used in industrial applications and consumer products for more than 60 years. However, recent research reveals they pose a great risk to human health including chronic liver disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical that we assess sources of PFAS exposure in environmental justice communities and resulting health risks to better inform equitable solutions to protect these communities,\u201d asserts Aung.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":5126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81,169,20],"class_list":["post-5124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-department-of-population-and-public-health-sciences","tag-latest","tag-research"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUSC Researchers Assess Impact of PFAS in Drinking Water Systems in Southern California<\/title>\n<meta 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