What to Know About ‘Forever Chemicals’ and Your Health

WSJ Article by Nidhi Subbaraman, March 14, 2023

In the eight decades since they were created, so-called forever chemicals have reached remote corners of the Arctic and been detected in the open ocean and the tissue of animal species as diverse as polar bears and pilot whales. 

Also known as PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, they can stay in the environment for years without breaking down. 

Nearly everyone in the U.S. is believed to have some level of PFAS in their blood, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Manufacturers have faced thousands of lawsuits that claim that products containing the chemicals were harmful and contaminated the environment. The chemicals maker 3M Co., which made PFAS-containing firefighting foam, said in December that it would stop making and using PFAS by 2025. Recently, a lawsuit against Thinx, a maker of period underwear, claimed that the absorbent products had PFAS in them. Thinx agreed to a settlement last year, but has said that PFAS weren’t part of its product design. 

In March, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first federal limits on PFAS in public drinking water, which would require water utilities to filter out certain PFAS that have contaminated water supplies.

Scientists are still studying the effects of human exposure to PFAS. Here’s what to know.

What are forever chemicals?  

These are a class of thousands of compounds that have been used in consumer products and industrial manufacturing since the 1940s, often as slippery coatings to repel water or stains. They are found in a range of products, including carpets and cosmetics, according to the EPA. They are in coatings for food wrappers, in dental floss, and are used in some electronics manufacturing. PFAS are also in firefighting foams used at airports and military bases.

“It is really one of the broadest categories of chemical ever used, so that does make it very exceptional,” said Phil Brown, an environmental sociologist at Northeastern University in Boston who has studied the chemicals. 

How do PFAS chemicals enter the body?

People can ingest PFAS through food or water, or encounter them in consumer products. More than 2,800 locations in the U.S. have found PFAS in their drinking water, according to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit that tracks the chemicals. Some of those are near military bases that used PFAS-containing foams in exercises for years. 

“If people are in a place that has high contamination, then water is going to be important,” Dr. Brown said. “But for the average person who doesn’t have high levels of contamination, food is very often considered to be the most primary route.” 

PFAS might pass to food from packaging, or produce and dairy could have PFAS from PFAS-tainted sludge used as a fertilizer, Dr. Brown said. People who hunt or fish might consume meat with high levels of PFAS. After detecting perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in rainbow smelt in some lakes, Michigan in January recommended avoiding the fish altogether, or limiting consumption of fish caught in those places. It is among a handful of states that have issued such warnings after testing game and fish for PFAS compounds.

Some occupations have a higher risk for PFAS exposure because of the tools they work with, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a public-health agency within the CDC that evaluates potentially toxic chemicals. These include firefighting, painting, laying carpets and even long-term work with ski wax. 

Companies have stopped using some PFAS since the early 2000s, and average blood levels for certain PFAS in U.S. residents have decreased since then, according to the CDC. Dr. Brown said companies have turned to other replacement chemicals that aren’t captured in this testing.

Evidence so far suggests that ingested PFAS is absorbed from the intestine, and can travel to the liver, pass into bile and get stored in the gallbladder, according to Jamie DeWitt, an environmental toxicologist at East Carolina University. When bile enters the small intestine during digestion, the PFAS gets reabsorbed into the bloodstream and recirculated. Also, rather than exit through urine, PFAS can get reabsorbed into the blood from the kidneys.

This is one hypothesis for why many PFAS compounds stay in the body for years, she said. Another is that they stick to proteins in the blood.

PFAS have been used since the 1940s. Nearly every U.S. resident has PFAS in their blood, according to the CDC. Companies have stopped using some PFAS since the early 2000s, and blood levels of certain chemicals have decreased since then.

There isn’t enough research to link any health impacts to specific levels of exposure, according to Dr. Hoppin.

Many studies have examined PFAS and occurrence of ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, and breast and testicular cancer, suggesting a link between the chemicals and an increased risk of each disease, the National Academies report said. Some studies have examined if PFAS play a role in diabetes and obesity, and disrupt fertility in men and women, but there isn’t enough evidence to make a link, according to the report. 

Lab studies in animals have supported some findings. According to the CDC, PFAS have been linked with liver damage, immune disruption, death and delayed development in newborn animals. 

“We know they produce a variety of health outcomes in people and in rodents,” Dr. DeWitt said. “And we have enough evidence now to indicate that they alter bodies to increase risk of diseases.” 

Are these chemicals harmful to children and pregnant women?

PFAS exposure is linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy, according to the National Academies report. PFAS blood levels in mothers are also linked with low birthweight, the report said.

Fetuses and infants are generally more vulnerable to harmful chemicals than adults are, because their brain and critical organs are rapidly developing, according to Laurel Schaider, an environmental health expert at the Silent Spring Institute in Newton, Mass.

PFAS can pass through the placenta of a pregnant woman to the growing fetus, and PFAS can be transmitted to infants through breast milk, according to the report.

Can you test for PFAS in blood?

There are established tests for PFAS in blood, but they aren’t routinely offered in the U.S., according to the CDC. Most people who have had their blood tested have been part of health studies run by the CDC or university scientists. 

PFAS blood readings don’t indicate whether a person has a particular disease, Dr. Schaider said. But the information can be a valuable benchmark. “If someone is able to have a follow-up blood test, in a few years, they can evaluate whether their levels are going down,” Dr. Schaider said. 

In a continuing nationwide study, the CDC and independent research groups are investigating how exposure through drinking water is linked to, for example, thyroid or liver disease, or high cholesterol. 

Those studies are testing the blood of volunteer participants in eight regions where PFAS has been found in drinking-water systems. 

The full article can be found HERE.