COMMON FOODS LINKED TO INCREASED LEVELS OF PFAS IN HUMAN BODY
By Edward Carver
Common foods including white rice and eggs are linked to higher levels of “ forever chemicals ” in the body , new research from scientists at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth shows .
The researchers also found elevated levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ( PFAS ) in people who consumed coffee , red meat , and seafood , based on plasma and breast milk samples of 3,000 pregnant people . The findings , published in Science of the Total Environment , add to the mounting evidence of the accumulation of PFAS , which were developed by chemical companies in the mid-20th century , in the natural environment and the body .
“ The results definitely point toward the need for environmental stewardship , and keeping PFAS out of the environment and food chain ,” Megan Romano , a Dartmouth epidemiologist and co-author of the paper , told The Guardian . “ Now we ’ re in a situation where they ’ re everywhere and are going to stick around even if we do aggressive remediation .” PFAS are a class of 16,000 compounds linked to a wide range of adverse health conditions including cancer , with research ongoing . The chemicals ’ development and production went effectively unregulated for decades , but has received significant attention in recently , with alarming studies regularly appearing .
3M , a consumer goods multinational that developed and manufactured many PFAS compounds , knew that they were accumulating dangerously in the blood of the general public , but concealed it , according to a recent investigation co-published by ProPublica and The New Yorker ; the article was written by journalist Sharon Lerner , who previously reported on PFAS-related deception by 3M and Dupont for The Intercept .
Such corporations may yet face unprecedented legal action . As Steven Shapin wrote in the London Review of Books on Thursday , “ It is thought that the monetary scale of American lawsuits against companies responsible for PFAS water pollution may eventually dwarf those involving asbestos and tobacco , considering that people are in a position to decide whether or not to smoke cigarettes but everybody has to drink water .”
While much of the concern about PFAS has rightly centered on drinking water — in which they ’ re found worldwide — that is just one of the ways the chemicals can get into the human body . A new study showed they can be absorbed through the skin .
Food intake is also a primary means of accumulation in the body , and the new Dartmouth study indicates which foods are the worst . The study doesn ’ t explore why , though Romano discussed some possible reasons with The Guardian . Rice is likely contaminated because of PFAS in soil or agricultural water , while coffee could have PFAS because of various factors including filters . Animal products can be contaminated if , among other reasons , the ground that the animals lived off was treated with PFAS-fouled toxic sludge , which is used by farmers as a cheap alternative to fertilizer . Even consumption of backyard chicken eggs lead to elevated levels of PFAS , and that could be because of the table scraps the chickens are often fed , Romano said .
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