A new study shows that harmful “forever chemicals” associated with chronic diseases including cancer are found in the blood of almost every single American.
Per- and -polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a broad class of chemicals that have a wide variety of uses, including in plastics, non-stick coatings, fire-retardants and personal-care products.
PFAS are called “forever chemicals” because of their chemical stability, which makes them hard to degrade and eliminate. As a result, they accumulate in the environment and in the bodies of animals that ingest them.
They are associated with many chronic diseases including obesity, metabolic issues, cancer, heart disease and reproductive decline.
Researchers looked at 10,000 American blood samples and found that 98.8% of all samples contained at least one PFAS, but only 19 samples contained a single PFAS.
The vast majority contained multiple PFAS chemicals, and a majority contained five or more.
A total of 58 different unique PFAS combinations were detected among the samples.
In recent decades, PFAS manufacturers have had to pay out billions of dollars in damages to people who claimed the chemicals had harmed them.
DuPont and a spinoff company agreed to a $670 million settlement in 2017 to settle thousands of personal injury lawsuits tied to PFAS use at a West Virginia plant.
This new study shows that most research on PFAS chemicals, which tends to focus on just a single chemical at a time, is likely to be radically insufficient to grasp the full effects of the chemicals on the body.
Sometimes a chemical can enhance the effect of another; or it can have an antagonistic effect.
The study also shows that almost nobody in the US today is able to avoid exposure to these chemicals, despite growing awareness of them and regulatory attempts to reduce exposure.
