A new study found that plants may reveal recent PFAS contamination linked to airborne deposition that can go undetected in soil analyses. Conducted in agricultural fields near the conflict zone in southern Israel, the research showed that potato leaves contained substantially higher concentrations of certain PFAS than the surrounding soils, suggesting direct exposure from the atmosphere rather than uptake through roots alone. While the study did not identify specific sources and found no clear relationship between soil PFAS concentrations and distance from the conflict zone, the findings raise the possibility that military-related activities, including the use of aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) and potentially explosives-related sources, may contribute to atmospheric PFAS deposition. The results suggest that vegetation can serve as a sensitive indicator of recent airborne contamination and complement traditional soil-based environmental monitoring.
A new study led by Nitzan Shy, Dr. Shira Rosencwaig, Dr. Tali Ilani, Dr. Evyatar Ben Mordechay, and Prof. Benny Chefetz from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Agricultural Research Organization (ARO) – Volcani Institute, Israel's National Public Health Laboratory (Ministry of Health), and the Southern R&D Center (MOP Darom), has found that vegetation can capture recent airborne contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as "forever chemicals," even when surrounding soils show little evidence of recent pollution.
Published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, the research suggests that plants may serve as sensitive environmental sentinels, revealing contamination pathways that conventional soil monitoring can overlook and offering a valuable new tool for tracking emerging environmental contaminants.
PFAS are widely used in numerous consumer and industrial products, including water-repellent coatings, non-stick cookware, food packaging materials, firefighting foams, textiles, and many other applications. Due to their exceptional persistence, PFAS can remain in the environment for decades to centuries, with some compounds exhibiting extremely slow degradation rates. As a result, PFAS contamination is now widespread across diverse environmental compartments, including the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the soils on which we grow our crops.
Today, the question is no longer whether people are exposed to PFAS, but rather to what extent. PFAS have been detected in the blood of the vast majority of people worldwide, raising growing concerns about their long-term effects on human health and the environment.
To better understand how PFAS move through agricultural systems, the researchers analyzed soils, potato leaves, and potato tubers collected from agricultural fields in southern Israel. The region provided a unique opportunity to investigate how airborne contaminants move through the environment under complex real-world conditions.
The researchers detected PFAS in soils, leaves, and tubers, but the distribution patterns differed substantially among these environmental compartments. Agricultural soils were dominated by PFAS associated with long-term inputs such as treated wastewater irrigation and biosolid applications. In contrast, potato leaves contained elevated concentrations of short-chain PFAS compounds known to travel efficiently through the atmosphere. In some cases, concentrations in leaves were hundreds of times higher than those measured in the surrounding soil, suggesting that these compounds may have reached plants through direct atmospheric deposition rather than exclusively through root uptake.
While no direct relationship was observed between PFAS concentrations in either cultivated or uncultivated soils and distance from nearby conflict-affected areas, the substantially higher concentrations measured in leaves compared with soils point to the possibility of airborne inputs. The researchers note that PFAS associated with military activities—including compounds originating from aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) and potentially from explosives-related sources—could represent one possible contributor to such atmospheric deposition. However, the study did not directly identify specific emission sources.
The findings indicate that vegetation may capture a more immediate snapshot of environmental exposure, while soils primarily reflect years or decades of accumulated contamination. In other words, plants can reveal recent contamination events that may become masked within the longer-term environmental record preserved in soils.
Importantly, PFAS concentrations in the edible potato tubers were substantially lower than those measured in the leaves. Although this pattern has been reported previously, the findings further support evidence that leaves and roots are typically the dominant accumulation compartments for PFAS, while transfer to edible fruits and storage organs remains relatively limited.
The study also places the measured concentrations into a broader international context. The number of PFAS compounds detected and their concentrations in soils, leaves, and potato tubers were generally comparable to, or lower than, levels reported in agricultural systems in Europe, Asia, and the United States.
The research highlights a broader challenge for environmental monitoring. In landscapes already affected by historical contamination, emerging pollution sources can be difficult to detect through soil testing alone. Plants, by contrast, may reveal recent atmospheric inputs that remain hidden in soil records.
"Our findings suggest that vegetation can provide unique information about ongoing environmental processes and may serve as an effective indicator of recent airborne contamination," the researchers said. "Understanding these pathways is essential for improving how we monitor and manage environmental pollutants in agricultural landscapes."
The findings also suggest that military activities may represent an additional environmental source of PFAS and potentially other contaminants associated with explosives and combustion processes, warranting consideration in future monitoring efforts. The researchers propose that environmental surveillance programs could benefit from incorporating vegetation and air sampling alongside traditional soil analyses, as these matrices may provide early indications of airborne contaminant deposition that are not readily captured through soil monitoring alone.