Seriously? Are PFAS in Everything?
Guardian staff, The Guardian:
“PFAS have been used in manufacturing and added to consumer products for decades. They are used across dozens of industries and in a huge range of consumer products because they are so effective at making items resistant to water, stains and grease. Your non-stick frying pan, for example, probably uses PFAS to make the “non-stick” coating.
PFAS can be found in non-stick cookware, fire retardants, stain and water repellents, some furniture, waterproof clothes, children’s textiles, pizza boxes and takeout containers, food packaging, carpets and textiles, rubbers and plastics, electronics and even dental floss.
PFAS are everywhere. While there is concern about these chemicals, the biggest risk and strongest predictor of having high levels of PFAS in your body appears to be living in proximity to contaminated water.
Regular exposure to the galaxy of chemicals we encounter in our daily lives potentially poses health hazards, but about 90,000 human-made chemicals now exist, and we simply don’t know how daily exposure to them affects our health.
A shorthand for the properties of some PFAS is PBT: persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic. Some chemicals classed as PFAS have been linked to health problems including high cholesterol, fertility issues, immune system disorders, kidney disease, birth defects, some cancers and a range of other serious health problems.”
Learn more about PFAS, including how they’re absorbed through the skin, and steps you can take to avoid them
Read “3M, Mohawk Hid Forever Chemical Dangers That Led to Health Crisis”
TAKE ACTION
Tell Your State Legislators to Ban Toxic PFAS
Send this letter (or modify it to write your own) to your State Legislator:
Dear [State Legislator],
Maine and Minnesota have passed broad bans on products containing PFAS.
Maine’s PFAS ban includes a prohibition on the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer (the industry name for it is “biosolids”). A few other states, notably Michigan, are testing sewage sludge for PFAS.
Every state in the nation should do the same.
Chemical companies like DuPont and 3M have covered up evidence of the dangerous human health and environmental impacts of PFAS since the 1960s.
Today, overwhelming research links PFAS to a wide range of health problems, including kidney, testicular, bladder, and prostate cancer, as well as developmental, immune, reproductive, and hormonal dysfunction.
Chemical companies are replacing older PFAS with other chemicals in the PFAS family. Unfortunately, these replacements, such as GenX, act a lot like older PFAS, and studies show that they can present similar hazards. Short-chain perfluoroalkyl sulfonates and perfluoroalkyl carboxylates adversely affect rat livers and thyroid hormones just like their long-chain homologues do.
PFAS do not break down naturally and bioaccumulate in the environment and our bodies.
It’s time to ban all PFAS and set to work cleaning up the water and remediating the land. Some plants, including hemp, have been shown to suck PFAS out of the soil, a process known as “phytoremediation.”
For more information, please contact the National Conference of Environmental Legislators:
http://www.ncelenviro.org/issue/pfas/
Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
[Your Name]
TAKE ACTION NOW: Tell Your State Legislators to Ban Toxic PFAS!
Date: Thursday, January 9th, 2025
Time: 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM CST
Location: Zoom (Link provided upon registration)
