The 'Forever Chemical' Detective

UC Irvine’s Scott Bartell, tapped to lead a state study of how PFAS impact health, discovered that his community was affected

They’re called “forever chemicals” for a reason. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a group of synthetic compounds that don’t break down easily in the environment – or in our bodies. Used for decades in products like nonstick cookware, stain-resistant carpeting, waterproof clothing and firefighting foam, PFAS have become a global concern because of their widespread use, persistence and potential health risks, including links to cancer, liver damage and developmental issues.

For nearly six years, UC Irvine environmental health researcher Scott Bartell has been on a mission to understand what PFAS are doing to his neighbors.

The call came in 2019 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It approved Bartell’s grant proposal to lead California’s contribution to a national multisite health study on PFAS, and he launched the UCI PFAS Health Study. These persistent chemicals had been detected in some of Orange County’s drinking water supplies, as well as in many other water systems nationwide. Someone needed to determine what this meant for the people who had been drinking it for years.

PFAS have been widely produced since the 1950s and earned their nickname because they break down so slowly that they essentially last forever in the environment. Studies have linked PFAS exposure to high cholesterol, kidney cancer, testicular cancer, weakened immune responses and a troubling list of other health problems.

Bartell, with his doctorate in epidemiology and dual master’s degrees in statistics and environmental health, was uniquely equipped for the detective work ahead. Over 25 years, he had dedicated his career to quantifying how environmental contaminants affect human health, including contributing to previous studies of PFAS exposure and health effects in West Virginia. Now a professor of environmental and occupational health in the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health, he would put that expertise to work for Orange County.

His team members recruited residents from Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, Tustin, Yorba Linda and Irvine – anyone who had lived in these cities between 2000 and 2019. They asked about drinking water history, measured PFAS concentrations in blood samples and meticulously documented health outcomes. The $7 million study was one of the most comprehensive investigations into PFAS exposure ever conducted in California.

When he first considered applying for the CDC grant in 2019, Bartell had assumed the nearest affected communities would be elsewhere in California or perhaps Nevada.

“Lo and behold, I learned that PFAS had been detected here in Orange County,” he recalls.

The discovery that his own neighbors were affected made the work deeply personal. As preliminary results emerged, Bartell found himself delivering both reassuring and concerning news.

“The good news is that the exposure, locally, is lower than what’s been seen in other communities involved in the study,” he says. And fortunately, Orange County water providers took important steps to tackle the PFAS problem early in the study: They shut down the most contaminated wells until new water treatment systems could be built to remove PFAS.

But Bartell was careful to note that lower exposure didn’t mean zero health risk. The study confirmed strong associations between PFAS levels and high cholesterol that other factors couldn’t explain.

Some results puzzled him, contradicting findings from other studies. Science rarely offers simple answers, especially when dealing with thousands of different chemical compounds, each potentially behaving differently in the human body.

Bartell took his findings seriously enough to offer practical advice to worried residents. When asked about protecting themselves while waiting for water providers to clean up contaminated wells, he didn’t mince words. “I have told people that if you have PFAS in your water supply, I would not wait for water providers to clean it. The granular carbon filters used in Brita and other filtration systems are fairly effective,” he says.

It was a small action, but in the face of such a pervasive threat, small actions mattered.

In his public statements, Bartell struck a careful balance between scientific honesty and avoiding panic. When a reporter noted that community members were joining Facebook groups like PFAS in the News (And in Your Blood), he said he understood their fear. People had spent years drinking water they believed was safe, only to learn otherwise.

As his study continues through 2026, approaching its conclusion, Bartell knows the work is far from over. He sees the data helping policymakers answer critical questions: Were people served by water systems with PFAS detections at greater risk than those who weren’t? How much did drinking water contribute to overall PFAS exposure compared to food, clothing and other sources?

The answers won’t erase the forever chemicals already in people’s blood. But they might help protect future generations.