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Quote of the day:

“The way you think, the way you behave, the way you eat, can influence your life by 30 to 50 years.”

– Deepak Chopra

PFA’s

What is it?

PFAs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are a large group of man-made chemicals commonly referred to as "forever chemicals." They are called “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down and can accumulate in the body.

PFAs chemicals are well-known for being present in nonstick cookware, with Teflon being the pioneer. However, they are still widely used in various nonstick cookware brands today. Products with waterproof or stain-resistant needs often have PFAs, like clothing, carpeting, rainwear, firefighter foam, furniture, outdoor gear, tapes, and cosmetics. They are also highly used in food packaging to prevent grease leakage.

Due to their widespread use, PFAs chemicals have become extremely common with 97% of Americans having detectable levels in their blood.

Why does it matter?

To no surprise these chemicals are everywhere and cause a major problem given they stick around for long periods of time and keep being consumed. Health issues caused by PFAs have been linked to various health issues such as cancer, thyroid disease/ other autoimmune diseases, developmental delays, fertility issues, liver & kidney damage, weakened immune systems, and more.

With more than 6,000 PFAs-related lawsuits filed since 2005 this is a HUGE cause for concern. The most recent lawsuit you may be familiar with is against Simply Tropical, who states their juice is “all natural” when it is not and found to have “hundreds of times” over the federal drinking water limit (still have not determined where its coming from but likely from the plastic or water), other recent lawsuit was against the underwear company Thinx. The challenge with the lawsuits since PFAs remain unregulated are they can’t be held liable. But what we can do it not buy it anymore so I have personally decided to stay far away from ALL Simply Orange products.

The most concerning part of PFAs exposure is in our water. Tap water is contaminated and our filtering mechanisms do a poor job of actually filtering out all of the bad stuff. There was also a test done of 47 bottled waters and found PFAS in 43 of them. PFAS are more frequently found in carbonated waters, and found in brands such as Topo Chico, Bubly, Waterloo, La Croix, and Polar.

Yesterday the EU announced they are considering a full ban on PFAs and looking for alternatives. States in the US like CA, Maine, Colorado, Hawaii, New York are taking steps forward to put bans on these chemicals but given the challenges at hand with fully removing them, we still need to take our own action.

How to remove from your life?

The first place I would start to remove PFAs from my life are:

1. Switch from non-stick pans to stainless steel (and if you cannot do that, make sure the non-stick pans don’t have any scratches). If they have scratches I would definitely throw them away immediately.

2. Dental Floss’s wax coatings contains PFAs so I would swap those out immediately as well. This is the brand we use - linked here or this brand is also good linked. Others are Cocofloss and Toms.

3. Switch from plastic to glass in as many ways as you can. The best place to start is in your home - get rid of plastic Tupperware and plastic bags for example. Also look out for what you are buying in store that comes in plastic.

4. If you must use plastic DO NOT heat it up under any circumstances. Make sure to NOT put any hot food in plastic containers or bags, let it cool off first. Do NOT microwave plastic (common one for me was rice in plastic bag from Trader Joes that I had to stop doing). Lastly, do not run plastic or non stick pans in the dishwasher. The old story I would hear when I was younger to not drink a water bottle that was sitting in a hot car (it is true and should be applied to all plastic put in any heat situation).

5. Limit drinking carbonated waters/cans (I would remove completely if you have any thyroid conditions) or switch to brands like Spindrift or Sound. Pellegrino had lower levels than others in PFAs and mountain valley is a great brand as well.

6. Limit using plastic water bottles and invest in a proper water filter. Refrigerators and Pitcher filters like Brita limit the amount of PFAs they remove from our water. This one is harder because its expensive so in the meantime never drink tap water. Another week we’ll cover other issues with our water causing issues.

7. Fast Food has it’s own issues (another story) but even the wrappers and containers are toxic so removing hot food from them ASAP if you do eat it and same goes for ANY take out - once you get any hot take out remove it from the container they gave you and put into a glass container or bowl to eat / heat up.

Given we cannot remove the current exposure, we need to limit and remove as much as we can going forward.

Check out this movie about PFAs:

"Dark Waters" is a film is based on this true story of an attorney who uncovered a decades-long history of pollution by DuPont, one of the largest chemical companies in the world, of a toxic chemical called PFOA. "Dark Waters" raises awareness about the need for greater regulation and oversight of PFAS chemicals and their impacts on human health and the environment. It is worth a watch!

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