Understanding PFAS - A Future Factual Deep Dive

FutureFactual Deep Dives take you behind the story - deep into the science behind the headlines. Handpicked and verified by the FutureFactual team, this is the sharpest, most essential content to get you fully up to speed, whatever the topic. 

Whether you're new to a subject or looking to go deeper, these are the pieces worth your time.

We've selected this set of content to enable you to understand more about the development and history of forever chemicals, how they get into the environment, what your exposure is to them and the health implications of this, and the best ways to minimise your risk from them.

The Story of How One Company Secretly Poisoned the Planet

This excellent documentary from Veritasium is an in-depth exploration of how a laboratory accident led to the creation of Teflon, the rise of PFAS across consumer products, and the long-term health and environmental consequences. The video traces the chemical's journey from wartime research to kitchen shelves, following investigative reporting that uncovered widespread contamination in communities like Parkersburg, West Virginia, and examines regulatory responses, exposure pathways, and the ongoing push for safer substitutes. It highlights how industry choices, scientific findings, and public health concerns intersect, and what individuals can do to reduce exposure while the world seeks safer solutions.

How One Company Secretly Poisoned the Planet

What are PFAS / Forever Chemicals?

PFAS, a broad class of synthetic chemicals used since the 1940s, are persistent environmental pollutants with diverse classifications based on carbon chain length, head groups, and polymeric forms. The article outlines how PFAS enter the environment through industrial emissions, fire-fighting foams, domestic wastewater, biosolids land application, and landfills, and how exposure mainly occurs via diet and drinking water, with inhalation of dust as a minor route. It reviews potential health effects such as reproductive issues, cancer risk, immune and hormonal disruption, while noting substantial knowledge gaps due to the diversity of compounds. To read in more depth, click on the link below.

Click to find out more about PFAS / Forever Chemicals

Do you have PFAS in your drinking water?

The simple answer is yes.  Use the interactive maps (link below) to discover the levels of forever chemicals discovered in water sites where you live.  So what level is safe?  Well in April 2024 the US EPA set legal limits for PFAS in water. The safe level for PFOA (also known as C8 the original chemical from the Teflon case) is set at 4 parts per trillion (or 4ng/L) as was its sister chemical PFOS.  For Gen X (the chemical that replaced PFOA) and PFHxS the safe level is 10 ppt.  It’s worth noting, however, that because PFAS accumulate in your body over time, even low levels of PFAS can keep your blood levels high.  You can use this calculator to work out what your exposure might mean for you:  https://www-pfas.pfas-exchange.org/report/graphtool/

Levels of PFAS in Drinking Water - Europe

So What Can You Do?

This article details how PFAS enter ecosystems through industrial emissions, contaminated biosolids, wastewater effluent, military bases, firefighting training facilities, and landfills. Drinking water emerges as the major exposure pathway for most people, with research estimating that at least one PFAS can be detected in about 45% of US drinking-water samples. PFAS can also enter the food supply via environmental pathways or through packaging materials, and seafood from contaminated waters can accumulate PFAS, making fish a potential exposure route. Practical steps include testing water near suspected sources, using NSF/ANSI-certified filtration if needed, and replacing non-stick cookware with stainless steel or cast iron. 

What Can You do to Minimise PFAS Exposure?

Just how bad for your health is PFAS?

So there’s a lot of very surface level information out there about how PFAS is bad for your health, and surprisingly little in depth.  The best and most comprehensive overview we could find is the guidance to and guidelines given by the USA’s Centre for Disease Research (link below).  This podcast from the American Medical Association outlines the latest guidelines from the CDC about the health risks of PFAS, from the director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, Dr Aaron Bernstein.  For a deeper dive here are the CDC guidelines themselves: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26156/guidance-on-pfas-exposure-testing-and-clinical-follow-up 

And for the most comprehensive document on health impacts, on which the CDC guidance was based (and the document that the Veritasium video refers to) then this report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine is the place to go : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK582439/.  

Just How Bad are PFAS for your Health?

Finding PFAS Wherever they are Hiding

PFAS are found in air, water, soil, and a wide range of consumer goods—from carpets and cookware to drinking straws and cosmetics. Known as forever chemicals, they resist grease and water and enable many modern conveniences, but their persistence raises environmental and health concerns. This article notes that PFAS have appeared in tap water, prompting regulatory steps such as EPA limits for drinking water announced in 2024. It also covers NIST’s PFAS work in food safety, including PFAS in meat and dairy and the materials labs use to test foods. This piece, originally published by the USA National Institute of Standards and Technology, illustrates how a useful chemistry can become a public-health and regulatory issue.

Finding PFAS Wherever they are Hiding