PFAs don’t break down in the environment, or in your body. And as the movie DarkWaters shows, they’re already in the blood of 99% of Americans. A toxicologist explains the dangers posed by the chemicals:
is a real-life horror story. Based on actual events, it shows how a determined attorney took on chemical giant DuPont, proving that they dumped a substance the company knew was toxic into the water supply of a small town in West Virginia. That chemical, PFOA, is just one member of a class known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or. These chemicals don’t break down in the environment, or in your body. And as the movie shows, they’re already in the blood of 99% of Americans.
WebMD spoke with Alexis Temkin, Ph.D., a toxicologist with the Environmental Working Group, about the dangers posed by PFAS. Our interview has been edited for length and clarity.Temkin: PFAS are a group of man-made synthetic chemicals primarily used for water and stain repellents, in a variety of consumer products. The most well-known are used to manufacture products like nonstick pans and stain-repellent carpeting. They can also be found in AFFF, a firefighting foam, which is often used on military bases and for firefighting training purposes. Due to these uses they can wind up in drinking water and contaminating the environment.
What’s unique about this class of chemicals is that they’re extremely resistant to degradation. Once they’re in the environment they won’t break down, so they’re often referred to as “forever chemicals.” We also know that they’ve been detected in the blood of nearly everyone. Once they’re in the body they take a very long time to be eliminated, and with more exposure they can build up over time.
As more people have studied these chemicals, we’re finding that even lower levels of exposure can be associated with harmful effects. With children, lower level exposure has been associated with reduced effectiveness of vaccines, and we’ve seen other health effects like infertility, low birth weight and trouble breastfeeding, and endocrine disruption. Currently based on some estimates, the safe level is around 0.1 parts per trillion in drinking water.
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