First manufactured in the 1930s for military use, Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances, also known as PFAS, are a group of manmade chemicals. They are now commonly used to make a wide range of products with heat, oil, water, and grease resistant properties. There are thousands of different chemicals listed as PFAS, with some of the most well-known being Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA). While PFOA and PFOS have recently been replaced in the United States with other forms of PFAS, a study conducted in 1999 by the CDC found traces of PFOS, PFOA, PFHxS, and PFNA in the blood of nearly every individual they tested.
PFAS exposure is widespread. The chemical class is used in many easily found products. These include food packaging such as fast food wrappers, popcorn bags, and candy wrappers, personal care products such as shampoo, makeup, and dental floss. They are also found in households with stain and water-repellent carpeting, water-repellent clothing, nonstick cookware, and electronics, fire extinguisher foam, soil near both regular and hazardous waste sites, and in water used for agricultural lands to graze livestock we later consume. Due to the nature of the chemical class, some PFAS, such as PFOA and PFOS, do not naturally break down in the environment. PFAS can also bioaccumulate (or build up) in the bodies of fish and other wildlife consumed by humans.
In a study published in August 2022, scientists at Stockholm University made a statement claiming rainwater everywhere on the planet is now unsafe to drink due to levels of PFAS exceeding the latest EPA guidelines. Some regions in the United States were found to have PFAS levels up to 14 times higher than the US drinking water guidelines.
Knowing the range that these chemicals now cover, should you be worried? What are the potential health effects of PFAS exposure? While health effects of PFAS can be hard to pinpoint due to the chemicals’ abundance and constantly shifting nature, some currently known health effects include hormonal interference, reduced response to vaccines, lowered immune system functions, increase in cholesterol levels and risk of obesity, increased risk of prostate, kidney, and testicular cancers, decreased fertility in women, high blood pressure in pregnant women. In children, they are known to be linked to developmental disabilities, low birth weight, skeletal abnormalities, accelerated puberty, and behavior changes.
Despite the possible risks of PFAS exposure, Ian Cousins, a professor at Stockholm University and lead author of the study published on PFAS in rainwater states, “I’m not super concerned about the everyday exposure in mountain or stream water or in the food. We can’t escape it… we’re just going to have to live with it.”
“But it’s not a great situation to be in, where we’ve contaminated the environment to the point where background exposure is not really safe.”
It seems that while our exposure to PFAS has potentially deadly side effects, it is, in 2022, entirely unavoidable.