Can your non-stick pan give you cancer?

People don’t live forever, so you probably balk at the idea of contaminating yourself with toxic substances nicknamed “forever chemicals.”

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of man-made chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), GenX, and various others. Ever since the 1940s, PFAS (also called perfluorinated compounds, or PFCs) have been manufactured and used worldwide, including in the United States. Because PFAS don’t break down easily in the bodies of humans and animals, they can accumulate over time.

Over a lifetime, people are exposed to PFAS from various sources, thus increasing their risk of potential adverse health effects, including immune- and hormone-related effects.

Health risks

To date, research on PFAS has been mixed. A limited number of human epidemiology studies have indicated that exposure to PFAS in humans may be linked to:

• Increased cholesterol levels
• Low infant birth weights
• Thyroid hormone disturbance
• Cancer (PFOA only)

In animal models, both PFOA and PFOS exposure resulted in cancer, as well as adverse reproductive, developmental, liver, kidney, and immune effects.

In a 2012 prospective study to determine whether PFC exposure is linked to an antibody response triggered by childhood vaccination, elevated exposures to PFC were correlated with reduced humoral immune response to routine childhood immunizations in children aged 5-7 years.

“These results indicate that PFC exposures at commonly prevalent serum concentrations are associated with lower antibody responses to childhood immunizations and an increased risk of antibody concentrations below the level needed to provide long-term protection,” concluded the researchers

In other words, PFC exposure could result in vaccination failure due to inadequate immune response.

Investigators of a prospective nested case-control study of people with type 2 diabetes indicated that, in a cohort of US nurses without occupational exposure to PFAS, higher baseline plasma concentrations of these chemicals—especially PFOS and PFOA—predicted type 2 diabetes during 6.7 years of mean follow-up. Eating certain foods, such as seafood and popcorn (ie, microwave popcorn bags), was linked to elevated plasma concentrations of PFAS among controls

Where are PFAS found?

Fluorine-substituted organic compounds have countless industrial and manufacturing purposes, and are found in surfactants and repellants, food packaging, and impregnated textiles. These chemicals are hardy and can make their way into drinking water, soil, and the food chain. The half-life of these chemicals in humans is at least 4 years, and they are routinely present in human blood.

Here is a partial list of where to find PFAS:

• Stain-repellant fabrics
• Non-stick products
• Polishes
• Paints
• Cleaning products
• Waxes
• Fire-fighting foams
• Chrome plating
• Electronics
• Fish
• Livestock

People who work in facilities that produce PFAS or in factories that manufacture goods made with PFAS can be exposed via inhalation.

What can you do?

Even though PFAS are seemingly everywhere, they don’t pervade our food supply to the degree one would expect.

For instance, in June 2019, the FDA released results from an experimental survey of PFAS concentrations in foods commonly consumed in the United States.

The FDA concluded: “Overall, our findings did not detect PFAS in the vast majority of the foods tested. In addition, based on the best available current science, the FDA does not have any indication that these substances are a human health concern, in other words a food safety risk in human food, at the levels found in this limited sampling. These data give our scientists a benchmark to use as we continue our critical work studying this emerging area of science.”

In the United States, some PFAS are no longer manufactured in response to phase-outs by major chemical manufacturers. But concerns remain among experts who warn that these older PFAS are being substituted with similar PFAS that have yet to be tested and regulated.

Some legislative efforts in Congress to address PFAS are underway. One proposal would require that the EPA set nationwide drinking water regulations for PFOA and PFOS. If passed, the EPA would get 2 more years to address “unreasonable risks” from these chemicals.

Some states have taken their own approaches to regulate PFAS. New Hampshire, for instance, announced new water limits for PFAS.

Nevertheless, PFOA and PFOS are produced globally, and products containing these toxic chemicals are imported to the United States in the form of carpet, leather, textiles, paper, plastics, non-stick cookware, and more. It’s something to think about the next time you fry an egg.