Mitigating PFAS

[theanimal]

What does everyone here do to limit their exposure to PFAS?

Water filtration is the obvious one.

We do not use any Teflon coated products, only stainless steel, cast iron and glass cookware. We have one rug that was made prior to 2018 so my thought is that it likely has PFAS in it. Then of course the paint in our house and some of the staining materials. Are there any paints that do not use PFAS? Seems like traditional wood preservation methods like burning or mineral oil can be used in lieu of stains. Otherwise we were happy to find out almost all of our outdoor gear is PFAS free with the exception of our rain jackets. I won't be getting Gore-Tex products again after I'm done with this jacket.

It pisses me off that none of this information is public about what goods it is used in and you more or less have to guess which things have PFAS in them or not. These people created it, did studies that told them how dangerous/harmful it is and have continued to sell it for decades. They should be in jail.

[Gilberto de Piento]

Check your water supply if possible, even on a municipal supply. Its showing up in more and more places. One example is if you live near where a fire department practices. They sometimes use foam with pfas and it can end up in the water in dangerous amounts.

[theanimal]

@GdP-Yes, I have read the local water info. There is PFAS in the water, lower quantities than elsewhere but definitely present. It is from a local aquifer and there is no piping system so you have to figure if it’s here it’s everywhere.

The place we lived last winter was a rental on an 80 acre compound across from the airport. We lived in a dry cabin but the landlord had a well at his house further down the road. It was found to be contaminated from the firefighters foam from the airport. His wife died early, I have to wonder if that was a cause. The city paid and installed a high end filtration system at his house. I think they compensated him as well.

[KRUMPn]

Seems like it’s best to just use high quality filtration whenever possible i.e. trust no water source at this point. As far as PFAS in other items, I’m with you that it’s damn near impossible to find stuff that blatantly says it’s not toxic. Add on to that we don’t know the safety profile of “new and improved” materials. For instance I have a non stick pan that claims to be free of PFAS, but what other crap is coming off of it?
Maybe a good limiter is to not trust anything invented after a certain era (when that is I don’t know)? I think this is kind of what you are already doing with cast iron. Would stainless steel fail this? I’ve read some people are terrified of the nickel and chromium that could leach from stainless. I don’t think there’s enough scientific evidence to prove that out though. Maybe a better methodology I’d only limit to a previous era, if we have obvious issues (like cookware?) otherwise don’t worry about it? I’ve racked my brain about this many times and have never come up with a good solution.

[the_platypus]

Over the summer news came out about PFAS in makeup.

[Married2aSwabian]

What does everyone here do to limit their exposure to PFAS?

Water filtration is the obvious one.

We do not use any Teflon coated products, only stainless steel, cast iron and glass cookware. We have one rug that was made prior to 2018 so my thought is that it likely has PFAS in it. Then of course the paint in our house and some of the staining materials. Are there any paints that do not use PFAS? Seems like traditional wood preservation methods like burning or mineral oil can be used in lieu of stains. Otherwise we were happy to find out almost all of our outdoor gear is PFAS free with the exception of our rain jackets. I won't be getting Gore-Tex products again after I'm done with this jacket.

It pisses me off that none of this information is public about what goods it is used in and you more or less have to guess which things have PFAS in them or not. These people created it, did studies that told them how dangerous/harmful it is and have continued to sell it for decades. They should be in jail.

This has been an issue here in Michigan for some time, and you’re right the manufacturers belong in jail! There was a big contamination over by Grand Rapids and one just 20 miles from where we live both a few years ago…or at least that was when it was finally detected. We even went to public town hall meetings w our US congresswoman about it. I stood up and asked what legislation with “teeth” would be passed to truly hold manufacturers accountable for their actions and PAY for the cleanup…nothing! They gave a BS answer, but nothing done.

We moved into a new (old) house four years ago that is less than one mile from a lake w PFAS detected in it. Since we’re on well water, I elected to take samples and have them sent to a lab to test. Levels are detected in ppTrillion, so only 2 labs in whole state can do it. $265 out of pocket. Thankfully came back negative. We still have an RO filtration system, but honestly when levels are ppT, I doubt it could filter it out.

Also got rid of any Teflon cookware long ago. I guess the shit’s even in dental floss, but I’m not gonna stop flossing my pearly whites!

[Western Red Cedar]

I came across this in my newsfeed today:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... rch-center

Really annoying because I've periodically bought Kos protein powder from Grocery Outlet over the last year. I've specifically tried to buy organic, plant-based protein powders, but this is a good reminder that I probably need to double down on my efforts to avoid any processed foods at all.

[OTCW]

https://time.com/6281242/pfas-forever-c ... -products/

It's in all kinds of products. It's in wild caught fish (one stat I saw equated a month's worth of PFAS exposure from drinking water to a single wild caught fish). It's in rain. Do your best, but realize it's an uphill battle.

[theanimal]

Since starting this thread there have been studies that have found that donating blood is a good way to remove PFAS from your bloodstream. You can't remove it completely, but it is a good way to reduce the amount found in your body.

[mathiverse]

You can also sell your plasma and earn money while reducing your PFAS levels. Plasma "donations" were more effective in reducing PFAS levels compared to blood donation in the study below.

https://www.usfa.fema.gov/blog/donating ... our-blood/

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamane ... le/2790905

[Ego]

Boil water before drinking to remove microplastics. The harder the water, the better boiling is at removing the microplastics. Our electric kettle has to be descaled regularly so I hope it is working.

https://www.technologynetworks.com/appl ... rst-384308

Boiling was able to remove 84% of the NMPs added to hard water samples containing around 180 milligrams of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). This rose to 90% for very hard water samples, containing around 300 mg/L of the mineral.

We filter our water before boiling using a simple Brita filter. I make two 2-liters bottles of tea a day and cool it in the refrigerator before drinking. I have changed the recipe a bit to include a bag of green tea, matcha, turmeric, black pepper, lemon balm, amla powder, lions mane mushroom powder, cordyceps mushroom powder, reishi mushroom powder, hibiscus, cinnamon powder, ashwagandha and clove powder. Tastes like spicy mud.

[Oey]

another source of PFAS i heard of recently is food wrapping. everything you buy at the deli is put in paper treated with PFAS chemicals so that grease doesn't penetrate the paper. true also of fast food packaging, pizza boxes. and oven parchment paper.

my choice now is not to buy takeout food anymore. it really is so poisoned out there that all you can do is what JLF recommends, eat a simple whole food diet cooked at home.

good luck everybody.

[zbigi]

I'd love to hear healthier alternatives to the oven parchment paper which also prevent pizzas from sticking to the pizza stone.

[theanimal]

There are silicone based options that exist for parchment paper. I haven't tried or looked into any of them myself. There was one blogger who had KIrkland (Costco) parchment paper tested for materials linked to PFAS and the results were low enough to suggest there isn't any within the paper itself, but perhaps still some from machinery and processing. Unfortunately, heat is one of the factors that allows for the "transfer" of these chemicals into our food. So even if it's relatively low, you're still likely ingesting them. It seems like the best option is going without.

I'd love to hear healthier alternatives to the oven parchment paper which also prevent pizzas from sticking to the pizza stone.

At least in this instance, you can go without. If your dough is sticking, I'd suggest lightly oiling your stone and/or putting a light dusting of semolina flour on the stone or the bottom of your pie.

[Gilberto de Piento]

Consumer reports has done some work on pfas in food packaging. Apparently it is phased out? https://www.consumerreports.org/health/ ... 187329638/ Sorry if I am skeptical. I think companies usually just move on to a new similar chemical company that isn't regulated, right? Whatever happened to BPA anyway?

[zbigi]

At least in this instance, you can go without. If your dough is sticking, I'd suggest lightly oiling your stone and/or putting a light dusting of semolina flour on the stone or the bottom of your pie.

The stone is farily permeable (the instruction even said to not wash it in dishwashing liquid, as the stone will soak it up), which means it will soak up the oil. Have anyone tried this approach? I'm affraid that, after a couple bakes, I'll end up with a smelly stone.

[Oey]

I'd love to hear healthier alternatives to the oven parchment paper which also prevent pizzas from sticking to the pizza stone.

yes, you can sprinkle corn meal (coarse) on the stone, then lay the pizza on top

[SouthernAlchemy]

There are silicone based options that exist for parchment paper

Silpat - https://us.silpat.com/pages/baking-mats
highly recommended.

[Western Red Cedar]

The pizza places i worked at either lightly oiled their pans, used flour, or cooked them directly on/in the wood-fire oven. I've never used parchment paper at home for pizzas, just a little flour on a baking sheet.

I do use parchment paper for baked veggies, home fries, and sweet potato fires to avoid extra calories from oil. I never even really though about parchment paper and PFAS. Maybe an air fryer is a better option? I try to avoid extra kitchen gadgets, but that one might be worth it.

[theanimal]

Much of the problem in addressing this issue on an individual scale is the lack of knowledge in what is contaminated and what's not. I was extremely pleased to hear tech entrepreneur Nat Friedman decided to put together a team to test 300 foods in the SF Bay area for endocrine disrupting chemicals. Their methodology and results can be found via their website below:

https://www.plasticlist.org/

Here are what Nat Friedman says are their top findings:

Top 5 findings in our test results:

1. Our tests found plastic chemicals in 86% of all foods, with phthalates in 73% of the tested products and bisphenols in 22%. It's everywhere.

2. We detected phthalates in most baby foods and prenatal vitamins.

3. Hot foods which spend 45 minutes in takeout containers have 34% higher levels of plastic chemicals than the same dishes tested directly from the restaurant.

4. The 1950s Army rations we tested contained surprisingly high levels of plastic chemicals.

5. Almost every single one of the foods we tested are within both US FDA and EU EFSA regulations.

Some findings were not so surprising, like high pthalates in packaged processed goods. However, in many cases there were high pthalates in whole foods like fruits and vegetables, even those that were organic. Alas, lentils were not tested.

There findings were somewhat alarming in the breadth of items that are contaminated. Granted, it is one of the first studies of it's kind, so I'm not sure too many conclusions can be drawn from the below information. At the very least, it is an excellent baseline for going forward and I can only hope there is much more research to come in this field. This is also a good example of something that can be done with a lot of money that serves as a public good.