What does the scientific community fear most for the general American population? Instantly, hot-button topics such as global warming, the obesity epidemic, and COVID-19 come to most peoples’ minds. Time to add another name to that list: Poly and Perfluoroalkyl Substances, otherwise known as PFAS, are a class of more than 4,000 different chemicals according to National Geographic. So what exactly are PFAS, why have we never heard of them, and why are they so dangerous?
PFAS have been used in commercial products since the 1940s. Created by the bonding of carbon and fluorine (one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry), PFAS are used to make everyday products resistant to moisture, heat, and stains.
People most commonly come into contact with PFAS in their water sources, in their food, in manufacturing, and in packaging among other things. Overall studies have shown that as much as 95% of Americans have been exposed to PFAS and have “a measurable concentration in their blood.” Moreover, according to a US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sampling of water supplies, up to 15 million people live in areas where PFAS are above the Health Advisory Level (HAL).
So what exactly makes PFAS so dangerous? According to research done by the CDC, high levels of certain PFAS have lead to “increased cholesterol levels, changes in liver enzymes, small decreases in infant birth weights, decreased vaccine response in children, increased risk of high blood pressure or pre-eclampsia [Pre-eclampsia usually begins after 20 weeks of pregnancy in a woman whose blood pressure had been normal. It can lead to serious, even fatal, complications for both mother and baby according to The Mayo Clinic] in pregnant women, and increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer.” Test subjects (animals) who were exposed to higher than average levels of PFAS were found to have suffered liver and immune system damage, as well as experienced “higher rates of birth defects, delayed development, and newborn deaths.”
One of the primary culprits of increasing the population’s exposure to PFAS was DuPont, a chemicals company based in Wilmington, Delaware. According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), “For nearly 70 years, DuPont and 3M have known that PFAS chemicals build up in the blood of people, and since the 1960s were aware of the health risks from exposure to PFAS compounds but hid that information from its workers and the public. A timeline of internal company memos assembled by EWG documents the decades-long deception perpetrated by DuPont and 3M.”
In 2001, attorney Robert Billot filed a class-action lawsuit against DuPont, resulting in a $671 million settlement. Recently, DuPont issued a $4 billion settlement as a result of the Delaware Supreme Court ruling in December 2020.
Those wishing to learn more about PFAS can look at the CDC’s page, or can watch the movie Dark Waters detailing the events of attorney Billot and his fight against DuPont. While it is easy to get caught up in hot topics like COVID-19, it is important to educate ourselves on other scientific issues such as PFAS.
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