Every new study on PFAS contamination points to a frightening reality: The chemicals aren't just in household products, they're everywhere in our environment. Recent analyses have found PFAS — also known as "forever chemicals" — in 83% of sampled surface waters, 60% of sampled public groundwater wells and in the bodies of animals up and down the food chain. Freshwater fish from nearly every state have such elevated PFAS levels that eating them even infrequently can significantly increase exposure to the chemicals.
Meanwhile, the body of research that links PFAS exposure to adverse health outcomes — like endocrine disruption and cancer — and environmental degradation continues to grow, highlighting the urgency to stop producing the chemicals immediately. But even as regulators like the EPA are finally developing guidelines for how to handle PFAS contamination, slow responses from industry and unsettled science over how to remediate contamination mean that we'll be dealing with the fallout from forever chemicals for quite some time.
