US landfills are major source of toxic PFAS pollution, study finds

Workers use heavy machinery to move trash and waste in Irvine, California, in June 2021. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” that leach from landfills into groundwater are among the major pollution sources in the US, and remain a problem for which officials have yet to find an effective solution.

Now new research has identified another route in which PFAS may escape landfills and threaten the environment at even higher levels: the air.