How worried should you be about forever chemicals? Here's what experts say.
You may have heard the term “forever chemicals” floating around. Maybe it’s why your friend refuses to use a nonstick pan, or your sister is strict about using a water filter. Now, the Biden administration is putting new rules and regulations in place to reduce forever chemicals in water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says these new standards, which will likely be fought in court by utility groups, could potentially help more than 100 million Americans avoid forever chemicals, and potentially the illnesses these chemicals are linked to, which includes cancer.
But what exactly are forever chemicals — and should you be worried about them too? Here’s what you need to know.
What are forever chemicals, or PFAs?
“Forever chemicals are a class of chemicals known as PFAs, or Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances,” says Emily Scarr, program director of Maryland’s Stop Toxic PFAS Campaign. “They are typically used in manufacturing to make things grease-proof or water resistant.”
PFAs are used across many different kinds of products, across multiple industries. According to Verywell Health, PFAs can be found in food wrappers and containers (though the Food and Drug Administration is now cracking down on that), stain-resistant coatings and water- or fire-resistant clothing. (Yes, your yoga pants might have PFAs.) Forever chemicals are also common in products like dental floss, makeup, nail polish and even guitar strings.
Yet PFAs aren’t just in those products. Thanks to manufacturing run-off, they can also get into our water supply. A government study published in July 2023 found that PFAs are found in 45% of tap water in the United States. That’s also a problem for our food supply: Freshwater fish contaminated with PFAs have been found in every state, and one serving of fish can be the equivalent to drinking a month’s worth of contaminated water.
This is a cause for concern, according to Rachel D. Rogers, a senior scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health, who tells Yahoo Life there are “some scientific studies to suggest that PFAs may affect different systems in the body.”
Why should we be concerned about PFAs?
Although more research is needed, Rogers says that research involving humans suggests that high levels of certain PFAS may lead to the following adverse health effects:
Increased cholesterol levels
Changes in liver enzymes
Decreased vaccine response in children
Increased risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia in pregnant women
Small decreases in infant birth weights
Increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer
“The reason they’re called forever chemicals is that they are highly persistent in our bodies and in the environment,” says Scarr. “It’s not like our body processes them and they leave our system — they build up over time. That, combined with these negative health impacts, is what makes them so worrisome and so dangerous. It’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m going to get cancer because I cooked my eggs on a PFAs pan,’ but it’s the fact that forever chemicals are everywhere that does worry public health officials about the exposure of our communities.”
How worried should I be about forever chemicals?
It’s difficult to avoid all PFAs, because typically, they are not labeled — though as research grows on the potential health hazards of forever chemicals, more public officials are putting regulations in place to minimize exposure.
Certain professions, according to the CDC, increase the exposure to PFAs in our work life, which could lead to such harmful health outcomes as those listed above. Chemical manufacturing workers, firefighters and ski-wax technicians, for example, are more likely to engage with PFAs than others, which is why regulations around PFAs are so crucial.
For the average person, Scarr says, we should be “worried, but not panicked” over forever chemicals.
“There’s only so much you can do to reduce your exposure, and you can’t get your exposure down to zero,” she says.
That being said, she notes, you can reduce your exposure. You might want to keep your potentially PFA-heavy hiking boots, given their unique waterproof function, but try your best to avoid PFAs in your water with a special water filter.
David Andrews, a senior scientist at the Environmental Working Group, agrees that a water filter is one smart way to lessen your exposure to forever chemicals.
“Drinking water is a really important source of exposure, and one that even a home filter can have a significant impact on levels,” he tells Yahoo Life. “We actually recently tested a number of home water pitcher filters and showed that some do better than others. It’s a simple step to greatly reduce levels.”
According to Andrews, we should “absolutely” be worried about forever chemicals, but there is some good news: The amount of forever chemicals in the United States has decreased, because less of these products are being used.
“It is moving in the correct direction, and a lot of these health harms are associated with longer term exposure,” he explains.
However, there’s still a long way to go, which means it’s more important than ever that there are better regulations for PFAs as well as any other chemicals that may be harming our environment or health.
“The regulatory system that’s been put in place to try to protect us — that system has failed, and this is a key example of that,” he says.
This article was originally published on Oct. 25, 2023 and has been updated.
