These common chemicals could affect your health all over your body, expert says

There are chemicals in cookware, food, water, clothes and furniture that could cause problems for people’s health.

These PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances — sometimes called “forever chemicals” because they don’t fully break down in the environment — have been used in consumer products since the 1950s.

As more studies and regulations about PFAS are released, Dr. Carmen Marsit has been doing research on the effects of these chemicals during pregnancy. Marsit, Rollins Distinguished Professor of Research at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, wants people to understand what to do about PFAS. Here’s his advice.

This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

CNN: What exactly are PFAS chemicals?

Dr. Carmen Marsit: PFAS are a class of about 15,000 human-made chemicals that contain fluorine groups, which give them special properties. They are in nonstick surfaces; they’re used in firefighting foams, protecting packages from grease, and waterproofing of carpets and your clothing. Because of the structure of these chemicals, they’re able to have these (nonstick, water-repellent and temperature-regulating) properties.

CNN: Should we be worried about them?

Marsit: I definitely think we should be concerned. One — they’re found in pretty much every person in the United States. The data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has shown that these can be detected in pretty much everyone — and that’s everyone from small children through adults.

We see new data coming out of research that’s telling us that there are good, well-researched links between these types of chemicals and cancers, particularly kidney cancer and testicular cancer. And there is more research going on that could be linking it to other cancers.

PFAS are also linked to various other endocrine-related type conditions, such as menstrual cycle alterations, infertility and thyroid disease. This is anything related to hormones, because these chemicals in their shape also look a little bit like hormones that we have in our body. They are related to things like thyroid dysfunction.

They’ve been linked to lower birth weights when pregnant people are exposed, to some developmental delays in children, and they actually have some immunological effects as well. They touch on a lot of different types of health effects.

We’re concerned because they do have this ability to affect so many different types of organs, and they’re so prevalent in the environment and in people that we worry about their health effects.

CNN: How do people get exposed to PFAS?

Marsit: There are a number of different routes. Water is a common route of exposure — drinking water from your municipal water sources in your home are contaminated with PFAS chemicals.

Food can be another source of exposure, partly because of the packaging that food comes in, (such as) any types of nonstick, risk-proof packaging. A lot of frozen foods and fast foods were put into these types of packaging. A pizza box, for example, will have PFAS on the bottom.

There’s actually some new data suggesting that PFAS are very prevalent in pesticides, and so, in fact, are being sprayed on to foods. Even your fresh foods might be contaminated with some of these chemicals.

You also get them from other types of consumer goods. They’re used in cosmetics and other types of body lotions. They’re in your clothing. Any water-repellent-type clothing is covered with these chemicals, and it could shed from those clothing items, and you can be breathing it in.

They’re also in furniture and on carpets. That tends to be a concern when we think about children, because they play on the floors more often.

CNN: What can be done about it?

Marsit: On the policy side, we are seeing some positive things happening that are going to start to reduce some of these levels.

The (US) Environmental Protection Agency now has a ruling out about at least five of these chemicals in drinking water that basically sets limits for these chemicals in the water. Within three years, municipal water sources have to test these chemicals, and then within five years, they have to have a plan for how to reduce those levels below the EPA-set limits.

Recently, the (US) Food and Drug Administration has worked with food product manufacturers who create the containers of food products to get the PFAS chemicals removed from those containers, so now we’ll see less of that kind of foodborne exposure.

CNN: Does that mean we have to wait on companies or regulations to change? Is there anything individuals can do?

Marsit: People can still take individual actions.

A lot of it is reducing exposures to plastics. Often these are used in coating plastics, and so using reusable water bottles that are metal or glass might be good alternatives.

Look at your consumer products, or any kinds of beauty products or personal products that you might be using, to see if they have any of these chemicals in them and try to reduce the use of some of those products. Or use products where they might have less of these chemicals.

Some manufacturers are starting to be concerned about the health effects as well and are starting to remove them from their products. It’s a slow process, but eventually we’ll see more and more of those manufacturers kind of moving away from the use of these chemicals in their products because of these health effects.

CNN: If someone wants to avoid PFAS in their products, what do they look for?

Marsit: You’re looking for things that say fluoryl. Any kind of chemical that might have fluoryl in it is likely to be one of these types of chemicals. It’s those kind of products you’ll want to avoid.

It’s really only going to be once when people really advocate for themselves — to get away from these chemicals and to have manufacturers stop utilizing these chemicals — that we’re really going to be able to get away from them completely.

There are new ones being created all the time, so we don’t even know all the potential PFAS chemicals that are out there. People avoiding products because of the chemicals says a lot to manufacturers, and that may drive what they do.

CNN: If everyone has been exposed, is there anything we can do to reduce the impacts?

Marsit: A lot of it is following some of the same principles we would follow for any kind of healthy lifestyle. The more you are eating fresh fruits and vegetables, getting exercise, getting your screenings done would all be good steps to make sure that if there are any effects, they might be caught early, and that they can be intervened upon.

We don’t know a lot about how to reverse any effects that may have already occurred from PFAS. There is some research going on to try to understand what we can do to remove some of these from our bodies, or what can we be doing to help to reverse some of the effects.

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