Toxic PFAS Chemical Hazard To Asian Americans

Asian Americans have alarming higher exposure levels of toxic forever chemicals called PFAS than other ethnic groups.

People routinely come into contact with PFAS (per and polyfluoroalkyl compounds) in daily life, and these exposures have the potential to have a negative influence on their health().

PFA exposure among Asian Americans is much higher than other racial groups, researchers report in Environmental Science and Technology.

Dangers of PFAS 'Forever Chemicals': Let's Spread the Word
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals, are on the headlines every day, but most of the research on the dangers of PFAS is still unpublicized.

‘PFAS pollution is a major health concern, and Asian Americans are especially more vulnerable to it. Increased awareness and a sustainable green lifestyle can help avert this threat. #PFAS #environmentdanger #asian-american’

PFAS are a family of thousands of synthetic chemicals also known as "toxic forever" chemicals. They are used in everyday products that resist heat, oil, stains, grease and water().

Toxic PFAS Alert- Asian Americans At High Risk

The scientists from the Mount Sinai Health System found that Asian Americans had a significantly higher PFAS exposure than all other US ethnic or racial groups, and that the median exposure score for Asian Americans was 89 percent higher than for non-Hispanic whites.

Asian Americans prefer sea food platter than red meat. Fish is a major source of PFAS exposure, either caught from PFAS contaminated water or imported from Asian countries where PFAS have varying regulations. Higher levels of seafood in their diets generally have higher levels of PFAS in their blood.

Sharp contrast to other ethnic groups, typical asian american household products including carpets and rugs, upholstery, clothing, and other fabrics; cleaning products; non-stick teflon cookwares and woks, majorly contributes to high PFAS level.

Getting Exposed to PFAS During Pregnancy can Make Your Granddaughter Obese
Watch out all moms-to-be, too much PFAS exposure during pregnancy can put your granddaughter at a higher risk of developing obesity.

Food packaging in grease-resistant paper, fast food containers/wrappers, microwave popcorn bags, pizza boxes, and candy wrappers, also fuels PFAS levels.

Personal care products like certain shampoo, dental floss, and cosmetics also play a vital role in high exposure to PFAS.

Anti-Fogging Sprays and Cloths Contain High Levels of PFAS
High levels of per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) are found in anti-fogging sprays and cloths.

"We found that if we used a customized burden scoring approach, we could uncover some disparities in PFAS exposure burden across population sub-groups," said Shelley Liu, Associate Professor of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

"These disparities are hidden if we use a one-size-fits-all approach to quantifying everyone's exposure burden. In order to advance precision environmental health, we need to optimally and equitably quantify exposure burden to PFAS mixtures, to ensure that our exposure burden metric used is fair and informative for all people," Liu added.

Long Lasting Makeup Products may Contain ‘Forever Chemicals’
Do beauty products contain toxic chemicals? For a smooth texture, ingredients including fluorine may contain potentially harmful per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

This is the first time that researchers accounted for complex exposure sources of different groups of people to calculate a person's exposure burden to PFAS. The Joe Biden administration in the US has allocated $9 billion to PFAS clean-up, and in March 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed the first enforceable federal standards to regulate PFAS contamination in public drinking water.

In the future, Liu's team plans to incorporate toxicity information on each PFAS chemical into exposure burden scoring, to further evaluate disparities in toxicity-informed exposure burden in vulnerable groups and population subgroups.

Reference:

“Forever Chemicals” Called PFAS Show Up in Your Food, Clothes, and Home- (https://www.nrdc.org/stories/forever-chemicals-called-pfas-show-your-food-clothes-and-home)
Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances (PFAS) Factsheet- (https://www.cdc.gov/biomonitoring/PFAS_FactSheet.html)

Source-IANS