By BRIAN SIKORSKI
Editor’s Note: This student Op-Ed was written by Brian Sikorski, a 7th grader at the State College Friends School as part of a school project in which he was asked to identify a problem that affects the community and communicate it to the public.
PFAS, polyfluoroalkyl substances, are often used in everyday things like waterproof couches and nonstick frying pans because of their heat and water-resistant properties. These properties also make them useful in things like firefighting foam, which is used in airports and military bases to extinguish fires that ordinary retardants can’t handle. Although this foam is helpful to put out fires, it often pollutes nearby wells with chemicals.
PFAS has been in production for a very long time, starting in the late 1930s and early 1940s. They were used in almost everything. When the companies producing them learned of the dangers and when restrictions were made on the chemicals, companies would change to a slightly different version, which could be classified as a different chemical. Because of this, there are over 15,000 different variants of these chemicals, all with very slight differences in the chemical compounds.
PFAS can take thousands of years to dissipate from an environment. The carbon-fluorine bonds that make up PFAS take hundreds to thousands of years to break down. This means it would stay in an environment, city, or home for that long and not break down. In humans, scientists have discovered that these chemicals can cause multiple cancers, liver and kidney damage, and many more diseases and life-altering events. In polluted areas, PFAS can cause livestock, like cattle, to die in mass. PFAS affect environments via bioaccumulation, which is when an animal eats several animals lower on the food chain that all have PFAS in them.
The predator then gets all the PFAS from those prey in their system. In addition, PFAS are often in disciplinary water sources in high, often unsafe amounts because of regulations that are often nonexistent or not enough to be safe for many chemicals, even though we know they are unsafe. Currently, there are only six types of PFAS with regulations, but that number may go down to two very soon with the current administration. Contrary to the popular belief that well water is clean and free from contaminants, PFAS are often in private well water, especially well water near places like airports or military bases, because of the firefighting foam used there.
What can we do? These chemicals are in nearly everything and everywhere. Scientists have found that 98% of Americans have PFAS in their blood. The best way to avoid them is by simply understanding what you’re buying. If it says something like heat-resistant, waterproof, or nonstick, try to avoid it because things like nonstick frying pans can leach some of the PFAS used in them into the food. By staying away from things with PFAS in them, you can greatly reduce your risk of getting sick from them.
