There are chemicals in cookware, food, water, clothes and furniture that could cause problems for people’s health. These PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they don’t fully break down in the environment — have been used in consumer products since the 1950s. PFAS are a class of about 15,000 human-made chemicals that contain fluorine groups, which give them special properties. They are in nonstick surfaces; they’re used in firefighting foams, protecting packages from grease, and waterproofing of carpets and your clothing. Because of the structure of these chemicals, they’re able to have these (nonstick, water-repellent and temperature-regulating) properties.
we should be concerned. One — they’re found in pretty much every person in the United States. The data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has shown that these can be detected in pretty much everyone — and that’s everyone from small children through adults. We see new data coming out of research that’s telling us that there are good, well-researched links between these types of chemicals and cancers, particularly kidney cancer and testicular cancer. And there is more research going on that could be linking it to other cancers.
PFAS are also linked to various other endocrine-related type conditions, such as menstrual cycle alterations, infertility and thyroid disease. This is anything related to hormones, because these chemicals in their shape also look a little bit like hormones that we have in our body. They are related to things like thyroid dysfunction.
They’ve been linked to lower birth weights when pregnant people are exposed, to some developmental delays in children, and they actually have some immunological effects as well. They touch on a lot of different types of health effects. There is concern because they do have this ability to affect so many different types of organs, and they’re so prevalent in the environment and in people that we worry about their health effects.
Water is a common route of exposure — drinking water from your municipal water sources in your home are contaminated with PFAS chemicals. Food can be another source of exposure, partly because of the packaging that food comes in such as any types of nonstick, risk-proof packaging. A lot of frozen foods and fast foods were put into these types of packaging. A pizza box, for example, will have PFAS on the bottom.
There’s some new data suggesting that PFAS are very prevalent in pesticides, and so, in fact, are being sprayed on to foods. Even your fresh foods might be contaminated with some of these chemicals.
You also get them from other types of consumer goods. They’re used in cosmetics and other types of body lotions. They’re in clothing. Any water-repellent-type clothing is covered with these chemicals, and it could shed from those clothing items, and you can be breathing it in. They’re also in furniture and on carpets. That tends to be a concern when we think about children, because they play on the floors more often. If it was made necessary to have chemical warning labels on products containing these forever chemicals, that would not only allow the public to make informed decisions as well as, in a way, forcing manufacturers to stop using these chemicals and work harder at alternatives.
