“Forever chemicals” are a widespread problem in Maine. It is largely linked to the decades-long spread of sludge as a fertilizer on farmlands.
But one Maine researcher has found another source, and it could be your favorite winter sport.
Quarry Road in Waterville is ideal for just about everyone from long-time skiers to college athletes who want to hit its eight miles of Nordic ski trails. That’s where Gail Carlson, an assistant professor of environmental studies at Colby College, found a problem hidden in plain sight.
Two years ago, she took snow samples right after the Colby Carnival, a collegiate competition that brings in roughly 175 to 200 skiers. Carlson was looking for per- and polyfluoroalkyl compounds, or PFAS.
“My son was a competitive Nordic skier. But as the environmental health person and as a parent, I really didn’t want him to use these fluorinated waxes,” Carlson said.
Fluorinated waxes have been largely used in competition, especially for Nordic skiing. But they have also been used for Alpine skiing and snowboarding.
But they contain PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals” because they are not easily broken down in either the environment or human body, that are linked to serious health effects.
Carlson wanted to see how the wax contaminated the environment, so she took a sample of snow right from the starting line when the skis would be freshly waxed.
“They were kind of rubbing their skis back and forth,” Carlson said. “What we found is the snow at the start line had just crazy amounts of PFAS in them. So much so that the lab that did the testing asked like, ‘What are these samples? There’s so much PFAS in them.'”
That means that the waxes are rubbing off rather easily in the snow. And when the snow melts, the chemicals stick around.
She also found these harmful chemicals in the soil, with the potential to get into the groundwater and move throughout the environment.
This could be a problem for Maine’s many ski resorts.
“I think we can expect that this type of contamination has happened anywhere where fluoro waxes were used,” Carlson said.
But the industry is catching up, with more associations, like the International Ski Federation, banning their use in competition, including the Olympics. They are switching to fluoro-free waxes.
But the bad wax is still out there.
“There might be some people still using the wax cause it’s still around. If you bought it and paid $50 for a wax you might still be using it,” said Bill Tiernan, a long-time skier who uses the Quarry Road trails.
Carlson repeated her study after the initial wax ban. She found several hundred times less PFAS than two years ago at the same competition.
“This seems to prove that banning the use of fluoro waxes in competition is beneficial for preventing environmental contamination,” Carlson said.
If you have this kind of wax on your shelf, keep it there. Until there’s a better, more environmentally friendly way to dispose of it, Carlson said don’t try to throw it away.