Damian Helbling, professor of civil and environmental engineering, shows a laboratory sample to doctoral students Florencia Corbo-Ferreira and Fanshu Geng. The researchers are working to better understand, detect and remove PFAS, also known as forever chemicals, from the environment. Credit: Charissa King-O'Brien

Among the technical inquiries spanning topics like cyclodextrin polymers and mass spectrometry that were stacked in Damian Helbling's inbox was a question about four golden retrievers.

A local woman had contacted Helbling, a professor in Cornell's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and a leading researcher of trace organic chemicals in water, wanting to know if it was safe for her dogs to swim in a nearby pond.

"I also have a golden retriever that loves to swim and I absolutely sympathize with this question," Helbling said, "but I hesitate to give a concrete answer when people ask me such specific questions about the safety of their water.…