Researchers Convene At U Of A To Tackle 'Forever Chemicals' At National PFAS Conference

For three days in June, many of the country's leading environmental researchers and advocates will be in Tucson.

The 2026 National PFAS Conference takes place June 8-10 at the University of Arizona, the fifth gathering in a series that began at Northeastern University in 2017. The conference, held every other year, is one of the few national conferences devoted entirely to PFAS, and one of the only ones designed around the people living with the contamination very closely. It is also the first time the series has come to the Southwest.

The full program is available on the Office of Research and Partnerships website.

PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, is a large family of synthetic compounds that have been used since the mid-20th century in nonstick coatings, water-repellent fabrics, firefighting foam, and many other products. They are often called "forever chemicals" because they break down very slowly and have been detected in the blood of nearly everyone tested for them. Research has associated PFAS exposure with a range of health effects, including some cancers, thyroid disruption, elevated cholesterol, reduced immune response including vaccine ineffectiveness, and lower birth weight.

This year's conference emerged through a partnership between the U of A Zuckerman College of Public Health and Linda Shosie, a longtime environmental justice advocate and a co-chair of the 2026 conference, who has worked with U of A researchers for more than a decade.

A new kind of conference
What sets the conference apart is the way it is built, according to Paloma Beamer, associate dean of community engagement and a professor in the College of Public Health and one of the conference co-chairs. The conference is unique in that it is planned as a collaboration between researchers and community members, and the research that will be presented will be directly relevant to the people who are impacted.

"I've never been involved in a conference like that," Beamer said.

Beamer, an environmental engineer by training who has spent nearly two decades in public health and the community engagement core director for the Southwest Environmental Health Sciences Center, said most conferences treat the pieces of the PFAS problem individually, in siloes. This conference deliberately does not, as it examines everything from how it harms our health to what policies would be helpful for reducing exposures, including sessions on children's health and its impact on Indigenous communities. Speakers also discuss cutting-edge technologies for removing PFAS from the environment. A separate continuing medical education session for healthcare providers is also being planned.

This format directly addresses a concern Beamer has heard from the Tucson residents for years – that their doctors often know little about these contaminants or how to interpret testing for PFAS.

The conference's scientific sessions examine the chemistry and the health questions in detail. Melissa Furlong, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health, is co-chairing two of them. Her own research focuses on firefighters, who face higher rates of some cancers and higher PFAS exposure through their gear and through firefighting foam, and whose concerns drive many of her research questions. One session she is co-chairing examines the newer, shorter-chain PFAS that were introduced after old long-chain compounds were phased out in the early 2000s, and that may leave the body somewhat faster than their predecessors did.

The other session looks into a question that affected communities often raise – whether anything can reduce the PFAS that are already in people's bodies. There is no recognized treatment, Furlong said, but researchers are studying whether existing drugs or efforts such as blood and plasma donation might help, since PFAS binds strongly to proteins in the blood.

"People in heavily exposed communities know it's in their blood, they know it's in their organs, they want it out," Furlong said.

The policy picture
There is also an entire session dedicated to policy picture. Gemma Smith, an assistant professor at Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy and the School of Government and Public Policy is organizing this session alongside community and advocacy leaders from other parts of the country.

Along with her colleagues at the Udall Center, as well as water governance and policy researchers, she began working on PFAS-related issues in 2024, first with a case study of Tucson's response to PFAS and then comparing how different states are handling these chemicals across the U.S.

Smith's session will cover the new federal drinking water limits for PFAS and how individual states are setting their own PFAS rules. The most challenging aspect of PFAS regulation is that thousands of distinct chemicals fall under the PFAS umbrella, each used slightly differently, and they often turn up in communities already carrying other contaminants, Smith said.

"It's a little bit like a hydra. You cut off one head and then three more pop up," she said.

Arizona may face exposures that differ from the eastern states where previous PFAS conferences have been held. Beamer's group is assisting with analyzing what predicts PFAS levels in the blood of Arizonans, drawing on thousands of samples collected across the state, with early results still being worked through. The dryness in Arizona, the deep water table, the state's heavy reliance on recharging groundwater with treated wastewater, and industries such as mining and semiconductor manufacturing all shape the picture here in ways that have not been fully studied, Beamer said.

Existing research on PFAS in Arizona, including assessments Beamer has co-authored for Pima County, points to contamination that is still being mapped. One such area, a plume of contaminated groundwater north of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, has only drawn little attention so far, according to Beamer.

Pre-conference tours
That difference is part of why the conference includes pre-conference tours on June 7. One, which Shosie is helping lead, visits the Tucson International Airport Superfund site and its treatment plant, along with South Side neighborhoods where PFAS contamination has had its longest history. Shosie said she wants the tour participants to see not only how the treatment systems work, but the inequities surrounding them, since many of the affected wells sit in low-income, minority neighborhoods.

Another tour heads south toward the border to look at PFAS in transborder and rural communities, including the Santa Cruz River and the international wastewater treatment plant near Nogales, where the sources of PFAS contamination are still poorly understood.

Shosie said lasting success against PFAS will be difficult, because the chemicals do not break down. But she said she is hopeful thanks to efforts like the first federal drinking water limits for PFAS, set by the EPA in 2024, and the public funding for expanded PFAS treatment serving the affected south side – both of which followed years of community pressure.

Beamer said people working on different facets of PFAS rarely end up in the same place. Researchers, regulators and the communities living with the contamination usually work apart, she said. The conference convenes them.