Forever Chemicals: What You Need to Know

Ian Standard

Aug 13, 2024

An image of a woman in laboratory wearing a lab coat, gloves, and protective goggles as she looks into a microscope. Her male coworker stands behind her taking notes on his clipboard. — Forever chemicals were first discovered by an American chemist in 1938, and are now under scrutiny for their long-term health and environmental effects.Credit: Edward Jenner Pexels

You may have noticed that PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” are cropping up in today’s news cycle more than ever. They’re threatening our health and destroying the environment, and the government is finally starting to regulate them.

To understand what all the recent news articles mean, we need to address one key question: what are forever chemicals, and are they really forever?

Forever Chemicals Defined

Like many scientific discoveries, the origin of the first forever chemical was an accident. In 1938, American scientist Roy Plunkett was working with chemical company DuPont to experiment with the Freon gases commonly used in refrigeration units¹. He and his associates were checking a frozen sample of tetrafluoroethylene when they realized it had spontaneously created a solid, waxy substance.

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Black and white image of a scientist in a lab coat standing in front of a wall of filing cabinet drawers. — *American chemist Roy Plunkett accidentally discovered the first forever chemical, PTFE, in 1938.* – Credit: National Cancer Institute Unsplash

This substance was polytetrafluoroethylene resin (PTFE), which DuPont eventually branded as the nonstick cookware material known as Teflon. PTFE’s slippery, stick-resistant quality quickly made it a game-changing material in many industries, from aerospace to manufacturing.

Before anyone could question the long-term effects of PTFE exposure, Teflon was everywhere. This was the first of many per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to be developed and introduced into industrial and consumer products. Today, the harmful effects of this PFAS revolution are catching up to us.

While there are now ways we can avoid these chemicals through PFAS-free products (check out our non-toxic cookware and non-toxic bakeware round-ups!), it’s hard to reverse the damage that has already been done. PFAS earned the charming nickname “forever chemicals” because they’re nearly indestructible — they’re extremely hard to break down and can collect in everything from water and soil to human organs.

The 3 Primary Types of Forever Chemicals

As we’ve defined above, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances are a class of synthetic chemicals used in a wide range of products.

Forever chemicals are unique because they all feature carbon-fluorine bonds. These bonds are one of the strongest in organic chemistry, and they’re what make PFAS capable of withstanding harsh conditions, from torrential amounts of water to extreme heat.

While there are many forever chemicals in existence today (around 15,000!²), there are three primary types of PFAS you should know about:

1. Fluorosurfactants

Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are the two most commonly studied forever chemicals. PFOS and PFOA were made in the US and have been in commercial use since the 1940s³, although they have now been banned and phased out of production in the country.

2. Fluoropolymers

PTFE was the first fluoropolymer, a family of high-performance plastics characterized by fluorine atoms directly attached to their carbon-only backbones. They’re incredibly stable and resistant to temperature and chemical exposure, making them useful in commercial applications from medicine to engineering.

3. Fluorocarbons

The most likely PFAS to slip under the radar, these small-molecule gases and liquids are often hidden in refrigeration and air conditioning units.

The Long-Term Impact of Forever Chemicals

In recent years, the narrative has shifted away from the many uses of PFAS and towards the damage these chemicals are doing to our bodies and the planet. Unfortunately, the near indestructible properties that made PFAS so useful are also exactly what makes them so concerning today.

Environmental Risks of PFAS

So how do forever chemicals go from being used as nonstick coatings in our pots and pans to polluting our environment? Well, when PFAS are in everything, it’s not hard. And when we say everything, we mean it — from insect repellant to cosmetics, check out a full list of products containing PFAS here.

For example, PFAS are used in firefighting foam because their resistance to heat, oil, and water make them ideal for suppressing fires⁴. As a result, firefighting foam may have the short-term effect of protecting our forests from wildfires — but it also comes with a devastating long-term trade-off. It’s a similar story with ski and snowboard wax⁵, which often contains forever chemicals. The wax is applied to the equipment and directly transferred onto the snow, which then contaminates the groundwater.

Image of a fireman in full gear and holding a hose distributing firefighting foam, standing in front of a cloud of spray. — *Firefighting foam commonly contains PFAS, which means that fighting wildfires can introduce indestructible chemicals into our environment.* – Credit: Pexels Tim Eiden

From examples like those, it’s not hard to see how those forever chemicals could go on to affect our drinking water, our wildlife, and even our own health. PFAS are highly water soluble, which makes them incredibly mobile — they can easily flow from soil to groundwater and back again.

Forever chemicals enter the environment through rainwater, groundwater runoff, sediment and erosion from contaminated soil, sewage systems, and more. A new peer-reviewed study even found that PFAS-contaminated pesticides are used across the country on staple crops like kale and strawberries — read everything you need to know about that here. So what exactly does the presence of PFAS in the environment mean for our planet?

How PFAS Could Be Contributing to Global Warming

Although PFAS production has recently become more regulated, significant damage has already been done. In fact, an analysis of data released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) revealed that even just the production of PFAS contributes to alarmingly high emissions of potent greenhouse gases⁶.

An investigative report released by Toxic-Free Future revealed that in 2019, a U.S. PFAS manufacturing facility released roughly 240,000 pounds of the destructive greenhouse gas HCFC-22⁷. That’s no small feat — it’s the equivalent of more than a billion pounds of carbon dioxide, or what would be released by 125,000 people driving their cars every single day for a full year.

And that’s just the process of creating forever chemicals, not to mention the harm PFAS can cause once they’re cycled into our ecosystems. As marine pollutants, they can adversely affect the growth and photosynthesis of plankton, cause toxicity in zooplankton, and disrupt the ocean’s carbon cycle⁸. Over time, this also causes an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, which further contributes to the climate crisis.

Health Risks of Forever Chemicals

Consuming chemicals of any kind is already a faux pas of the modern world, and organic, non-GMO, and local produce are encouraged for good reason. We have enough to be worried about without PFAS — other toxins like fungicides can disrupt our hormone systems through staple produce, too (more on that here). But when we ingest forever chemicals via food products, water, and other animals, it takes a long-term toll on human health.

Bioaccumulation and Biomagnification: The Build-Up of Forever Chemicals

While we’ve covered how PFAS threatens our environment, it’s also worth mentioning the damage they do to our wildlife — especially because that goes on to significantly impact us.

PFAS are bioaccumulative, which means they build up in human and animal bodies². They bind to proteins in the blood, liver, and kidney, and they take a very long time to get excreted. And once they’re present in an animal’s body, forever chemicals can also be passed along the food chain.

For example, let’s take a look at a trout. Imagine that pesticides containing PFAS chemicals are sprayed on crops in a field several miles from the freshwater lake where the trout lives, saturating the soil and seeping into a nearby waterway. The creek the chemicals flow into then feeds into a river, which eventually leads into the lake. The chemicals drift down to the bottom of the lake where macroinvertebrates eat them while digging around in sediment.

From there, it’s easy to guess where the story goes. The macroinvertebrates are eaten by small minnows, small fish feed on those minnows, and larger predator fish like our trout feed on those small fish. Because these forever chemicals are bioaccumulative, PFAS are passed through each stage of that food chain — from the macroinvertebrates all the way up to the trout we bought at the supermarket and are now frying up for dinner.

An image of a fisherman wading through a lake with a net and a fishing rod. — *Freshwater lake trout could be contaminated by PFAS that have bioaccumulated and biomagnified over time.* – Credit: Taylor Grote Unsplash

Unfortunately, the story gets even worse. When the chemicals move from one creature to another through the food chain, they actually become more concentrated through a process called biomagnification⁹. In this case, being at the top of the food chain has some negative effects.

To illustrate this process, a study done in 1997 on the Arctic environment found that when Canadian caribou grazed on lichen that had been exposed to chemicals, the chemical levels in the caribou were up to 10 times higher than the original levels in the lichen¹⁰.

Once wolves fed on those caribou, the chemical levels were magnified almost 60 times more than the lichen. This means that on top of our direct exposure, our place at the top of the food chain makes us an easy victim to the dangerous biomagnification of PFAS.

Growing Research on PFAS and Human Health

Fortunately, we now know more about the negative side effects of these chemicals on human health. For now, most research is focused on fluorosurfactants such as perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA).

Image of a scientist in a lab coat and gloves holding a test tube, surrounded by chemical equipment, and writing in a notebook. — *Much of the research on the long-term health impact of forever chemicals is focused on fluorosurfactants like PFOS and PFOA.* – Credit: Pexels Polina Tankilevitch

Studies Link PFOA Exposure¹¹ to These Health Risks

High cholesterol and/or risk of obesity
Chronic kidney disease
Liver disease
Ulcerative colitis
Endocrine issues like thyroid disease
Increased risk of some cancers, including testicular, prostate, and kidney cancer¹²
A weakened immune system, resulting in a reduced ability to fight infections and reduced vaccine response
Reproductive effects like decreased fertility and pregnancy-induced hypertension (high blood pressure)¹³
- Relatedly, there have been links of PFAS exposure to developmental delays in children, such as low birth weight or accelerated puberty
A slow metabolism, especially in women

And these are just some of the risks we know about — research continues as scientists study the long-term effects of PFAS exposure. With data suggesting that more than 97 percent of Americans have forever chemicals in their blood¹⁴, we need to take action sooner rather than later.

Governmental Policy Fighting PFAS

In an interview with David Andrews, Deputy Director of Investigations at EWG, he explained, “Forever chemicals are a global contamination problem that will only get better through direct action and restrictions that limit the use and release of these chemicals.” To see significant change, the government must step in and enforce stricter regulations.

Luckily, governments and global organizations are finally stepping up to the plate. On April 10, 2024, the EPA announced new restrictions for PFAS levels in drinking water¹⁵, requiring local water companies to remove six chemicals within the next three years to meet the first-ever national, legally enforceable drinking water standard (can you believe this wasn’t a thing until a few months ago?!).

The EPA also officially designated two common PFAS — PFOA and PFOS — as hazardous substances¹⁶. While this designation may seem obvious, it’s a move that will require releases of these chemicals in soil or water to be reported to federal, state, or tribal officials if they meet or exceed certain levels. Once reported, the EPA will hold responsible parties accountable by requiring cleanups to protect public health.

Forever chemicals are a global contamination problem that will only get better through direct action and restrictions that limit the use and release of these chemicals.

David Andrews, Deputy Director of Investigations at EWG

There’s no question that there’s more work ahead when it comes to eliminating PFAS exposure and mitigating its effects. But amidst the doom and gloom, Andrews maintains some hope. “There is some positive news that the levels of a few PFAS chemicals, phased out over a decade ago, have decreased in people.” With the right awareness and actions, maybe PFAS chemicals don’t have to be forever after all.

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